


AKA Into the Fire

by MarikaFromCincy



Series: Jessica Jones Hunger Games AU [2]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Jessica Jones (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-05-06 18:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 38
Words: 72,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5427038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarikaFromCincy/pseuds/MarikaFromCincy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shortly after the 74th Hunger Games,  Johanna finds herself getting more tangled in the revolution thanks to Jessica Jones and Trish Walker, who are also the only people to have noticed her growing feelings for the Girl on Fire.</p><p>Jessica Jones/Hunger Games crossover that takes place during the events of Catching Fire and Mockingjay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to keep my Jessica Jones Hunger Games AU/Crossover going. I got a handful of requests for some Joniss. So, here is that mixed in with the events of the first two books/movies, the revolution ramblings from the first part and Trish making heart eyes at Jessica.

_"Trust me," Katniss whispered seriously to Peeta. "On the count of three?"_

"What are they doing?" Pam pleaded desperately, turning to Hogarth.

The mentor didn't meet the handler's eyes and kept them on their screen in the District 12 viewing room.

"Can they do this?" Cinna asked anxiously.

Hogarth fiddled with her necklace and took a deep breath. "No," she told the others in the midst of the darkened room lite only by the projection screen with a live feed from the arena and a single computer screen. "But they are."

_"The count of three," he replied._

"Oh, shit! Oh, shit," Jessica exclaimed as she nearly chocked on her whiskey.

She peered over at her girlfriend, who was sitting beside her on the couch in her swanky Capital apartment that was only lite by the giant television screen and the dim blue light coming off Trish's leg brace.

"I told you she was perfect," Trish said in amazement shaking her head as she picked her wine glass up off the coffee table.

"Yeah. Fucking good call," Jess replied.

_"Hold them out. I want everyone to see," Peeta added._

_"One. Two. Three!" Katniss said._

Finnick broke out in nervous laughter in the District Four viewing room.

"I wasn't expecting this out of her," Finnick stated quietly so only a few of the dozen of victors could hear him.

Mags turned around in the chair in front of him and smirked.

'You have little faith,' she signed to him

He shook his head at her amused.

"I'm glad it was her," Annie chimed in quietly from Finnick's side.

"I thought you wanted Patsy Walker to be the districts' hero?" Finnick asked her.

Annie shook her head. "She is better. I can see it now."

_The two kids from District 12 raised the poisonous berries to their mouths._

"No, no," Johanna whispered under her breathe at she watched the footage from the District 7 viewing room. "Don't kill yourself, you fucking idiot."

Johanna peered around quickly and was glad the three other tributes didn't seem to notice her reaction. She was usually better at keeping her crushes a secret than this. Mostly it was because she never let anyone close enough to see her show any kind of weakness but it had happened a few times since she won the 71st Hunger Games, three years ago.

She had suddenly been forced into a full-time job she never fucking wanted, with a bunch of other victors who clearly didn't want to be there. The only one she thought might have wanted it was Blight, with his ruthless attitude toward violence and slight steroid addiction. She had gained multiple work colleagues but no real friends except for Finnick and Annie.

But they had been too busy ogling at each other at every event since she first laid eyes on the tough, closed-off girl from District 12. Someone had definitely noticed her feelings toward the Girl on Fire, but strangely Johanna knew she could trust the movie star to not say anything. Johanna had caught Patsy/Trish/whichever Walker looking at her while they were both at the bar waiting for drinks at the pre-interview party. Johanna had been watching footage of Katniss on a television above the bar. She had felt eyes on her and met the movie star and her amused, knowing smiling. She had told her to fuck off. She had just laughed.

But, luckily the movie star was off being too famous and important for mentor duties for Johanna to see her again after that. She figured it was for the best. She had been told by the higher ups she was off somewhere with her supposedly dead girlfriend.

_"Stop! Stop! Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. I give you -- the tributes of District 12," Claudius Templesmith said in a strained, astounded voice._

Pam shrieked excitedly, as she jumped out of her chair and clapped. Cinna shot a pleased look at Hogarth, who just smirked at she took a drink of her glass.

"Fuck yes!" Jess yelled as she and Trish both jumped off the couch.

Trish awkwardly landed on her still recovering leg and stumbled back toward the couch.

"Whoa," Jess called as she caught her and held her steadily in front of her.

Trish smiled at her lovingly once the panicked look left her face. Trish slowly leaned in and kissed Jess passionately.

_"And the star-crossed lovers from District 12 beat the odds and found a way to be together," Cesar Flickerman said excitedly as the footage of Katniss and Peeta being picked up by a hovercraft minimized onto a smaller screen behind him._

_"What a beautiful love story," Clauduis added._

_"Yes, indeed," Cesar replied._

Pam nearly burst with excitement at having two more victors and jumped at Jeri, who only let her kiss her for a moment before pulling away from her coldly.

Annie smiled at the screen before pushing Finnick into the wall behind them.

Finnick swore he saw Mags sign something along the lines of 'get a room' before he closed his eyes to kiss the love of his life back.

Johanna stared at the screen intensely with her arms crossed over her chest as the footage from the hovercraft overtook Cesar and Clauduis again. Katniss was banging against the glass door of her hovercraft cell and a bunch of people in medic outfits took Peeta into another part of the craft. Johanna would have felt worse about watching her in such distress if she wasn't feeling so annoyed and jealous about Katniss' feelings for Peeta. But, they had just been through the Hunger Games together and she had met Katniss in passing once. What fucking chance did she have?

"Fucking rule breaking bastards," Blight griped beside Johanna. "They are going to get a lot of District 12 people killed.

"You care?" Johanna shot back.

"Did you see the trailer for Patsy Walker's action movie? It looks pretty badass," he replied with a shrug. "I was hoping we would get to see more."

Johanna dug her nails into the skin of her forearm. They had just watched 22 kids die and were going to have to go home to 7 and meet with two families about their dead children and attend two more tribute funerals. And his only concern was despite everything Katniss had just done and how Johanna knew it was going to be used to fuel a revolution it might jeopardize a movie she knew was already being filmed.

"That rich bitch is untouchable," Johanna groaned as she watched Katniss continue to panic on the screen, thinking just how opposite the girl looked.

Johanna tried to forget about that image as she watched the after show interview with Katniss and Peeta. They did fantastically in it. Johanna was shaking her head at the screens in the bar outside of Cesar's studio. She was seated at a table with Finnick and Annie. All three of them had drinks and barely touched appetizers cooled in the center of the table.

"We really need to stop underestimating Hogarth," Finnick stated as Katniss an Peeta nailed every question they were asked.

Johanna nodded annoyed.

"Continued praise for Cinna-Cinna-Cinna-Cinna," Annie stammered out while hitting her hand against the side her head. Finnick caught her hand and pulled it away from her head. She fought him a moment and then peered at him, took a strained breathe and nodded.

Johanna waited until she looked at her again to nod in agreement over her beer. "Seriously. Fucking look at her outfit," she stated throwing up her hand at the screen.

"Innocent, light-colored dress," Finnick stated, shaking his head.

"Patsy Walker," Annie added.

Johanna nodded and groaned. "Yeah, that innocent dress with Jessica Jones' jacket."

"Is she going to be at this upcoming party?" Finnick asked.

Johanna shrugged. "You know her girlfriend better than I do."

Jessica Jones was at the after party for the premiere of _Together We Fight_. It was a Patsy Walker and Finnick Odar lead action movie and Trish Walker decided to have the after party at her apartment.

Jessica Jones appeared and Johanna and Annie made eye contact across the room and both raised their eyebrows in question at each other. Annie then laughed and turned to hang on Finnick's arm. Johanna glared at the supposedly dead woman. Her normally raven hair was dyed pink and she was wearing thick rimmed glasses. She had a story of apparently being a production assistant named Jewel Campbell who worked on the movie, which was how she and Patsy met.

Johanna thought the whole ordeal seemed a little ridiculously. The party was mostly rebels save for a few exception. Johanna figured everyone's biggest concern was for the newly crowned victors who hadn't been told about the revolution yet.

Johanna had been keeping an eye them, well mostly on Katniss since shortly after they arrived.

Johanna was standing in Patsy Walker's kitchen mixing herself a drink. She had been so focused on lifting up the multiple different liquor bottles the she didn't even realize the Girl on Fire was at her side until she spoke.

"You know anything good and strong?" Katniss asked her as she tossed her glass on the counter.

Johanna stopped it before it slid off and onto the tile floor. Johanna smirked at her.

"Not enjoying yourself?" Johanna asked with a questioning smile.

"The only people I know here are Peeta, Hogarth and Pam," Katinss dryly stated. "Hogarth and Pam disappeared together a while ago and Peeta is befriending people I don't know how to deal with."

"Johanna Mason," she told her. "District 7."

"I'd introduce myself, but then you would just tell me how I didn't need to," Katinss replied sounding annoyed.

Johanna smirked and laughed slightly. "I know the feeling, on a smaller scale. Nobody gives a shit about me outside of my district."

"I wish I could say the same," Katniss replied harshly.

"Well, Patsy Walker is a good friend to have," Johanna said with a smirk as she finished pouring Katniss' drink. "Mostly because she is rich as fuck and buys nice things without realizing most of us could care less." Johanna pushed her drink across the counter to her. "The liquor in that probably cost more than your outfit did."

Katinss took a sip of the drink, groaned for a moment and then took another with less reaction. "Cinna picked out the outfit."

"How dare you be allowed to dress yourself," Johanna stated. She eyed her up and down. "Looks good," she said and raised eyebrows. "And Cinna had nothing to do with that."

Katinss peered at her confused and didn't answer of a while. She then eventually told her thank you. A few hours later, Johanna rose from her position on Trish Walker's couch to say goodbye to Katiniss.

She stood awkwardly before her until Johanna leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. Katniss let her but then glared at her for a moment until she was shuffled out by Pam as Peeta followed.

Everyone seemed to be gathering around in the living room. Johanna went and leaned against the counter in the kitchen as Finnick and Annie sat on the stools.

"What is going on?" Annie asked peering out at everyone.

Johanna shrugged as she poured more of Patsy Walker's fancy booze into her glass.

"Everything ready?" Hogarth asked Trish in the hallway off the living room.

Trish was entering a code into a control panel on her wall. "Seems to be," she said with a nod. "Are all the others ready?"

"I've heard from all my groups. Jessica?" Cinna asked.

She was sitting in the floor, holding her tablet that was plugged into the outlet beside her.

"11 is having an issue with their signal but everyone else is set," Jess replied.

"Then we're ready," Hogarth stated.

Trish nodded as she pressed accept on the control plan. All the windows started to dim until they were fully tinted. Two more screens lowered from the ceiling beside the television and video calls from smaller groups throughout the nation were projected onto them.

"What?" Johanna blurted.

Finnick smirked. "Ladies and Gentleman, let the revolution begin."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a rebels meeting, everyone makes their way home. Jessica and Trish have an unwanted encounter, while Johanna gets pleasantly surprised.

Hogarth strode over to the couch and sat on the edge near the camera. Cinna sat beside her as Trish and Jessica walked through the dimly light apartment and stood behind the couch, so they could see all three of the screens. Johanna, Finnick and Annie wandered over from the kitchen and stood beside them.

"Nice to see you, Capital team," said a woman on the video feed from what looked like a factory with about a dozen people around her.

"Paylor," Jess leaned over and told Trish. "She was our contact in 8."

"Did you recruit most of these people?" Finnick asked.

Jess scoffed at him. "Fuck, no." Jess scanned the faces on the screen. "It looks like five," she replied. "I only got 28 total to agree to be a part."

"Are they all super heroes like you?" Annie asked

Trish looked over at Jess with an amused smile.

"The powers doesn't make them heroes," Johanna griped.

"She's right," Jess added. "And most of them are just kids, anyway. It was probably a waste of time tracking them all down."

Trish grabbed Jess' hand and smiled at her as they turned their attention back to the screen.

"What about the next games?" a man from 9 asked.

"It is the Quarter Quell," someone from 5 added.

"It's too far off," Hogarth said, shaking her head at the ground.

"She's right," Cinna added. "We have to get them through the victory tour first."

"It might be easier to get people relied up than last year," a man from 10 stated.

"Certainly will be here in 11," a woman said from the lined video that kept cutting in and out. "After what Katniss did for Rue, the people love her more than Patsy Walker. No offense by the way."

Everyone in the room and everyone in the videos peered at Trish.

"This is the only thing I didn't miss," Jess whispered through her teeth.

Trish hit her on the arm while smiling up at the screen. "None taken. I'm happy to be replaced."

Johanna groaned. Jess turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

"Your girlfriend is disgustingly good at bullshit," Johanna told her.

Jess nearly smiled. "Well, someone has to be."

Everyone else went back to giving updates about how the rebellions were forming in each district.

"You're from the same part of 12 as Katniss, right?" Johanna asked Jess.

"The Seam, yeah," Jess grumbled as she looked away from the District 12 man talking about rebels in what she was nearly certain was Luke's Bar.

"How does she not have powers too?" Johanna pried.

Jess shrugged as she turned to her, unable to spot Luke in the video.

"She wasn't home when the chemical plant exploded. She was out hunting with that giant boy with the girl's name..."

"Gale Hawthorne?" Trish sighed with a hint of annoyance. "Jess, we went to school with him for 12 years."

Jess just shrugged at her defensively.

"Her house was destroyed also," Trish added to the conversation. "But her family wasn't home."

"She'd probably be safer if she had some," Johanna thought allowed.

Trish smiled but Johanna wasn't looking at her. "She seems to be doing fine without them."

"The odds of that continuing are unlikely," Johanna replied, trying to sound indifferent but the two 12 victors saw through it.

"The odds might actually be in her favor," Trish stated.

Johanna and Jess both rolled their eyes.

"That was incredibly lame," Jess told Trish as she shook her head and then leaned in and kissed her lightly.

"Disgusting," Johanna huffed.

Trish forced open the window of the train a few days later and peered out into the District 12 train yard.

"It looks clear," Trish said as Jessica walked over to her, pulling her hood over her head. “It is the third house on the left,” Trish told her as she pushed a key into the pocket of her jeans. “For the door on the second floor balcony.”

Jess raised an eye at her.

Trish sighed. “Were you going to use the front door?” 

Jess shrugged and was about to grumble a defense. 

“Actually, don’t use the front door. It would be safer,” she said anxiously. 

“I know, Trish,” Jess replied annoyed. “I’m still dead.” 

“Hopefully not for too much longer,” Trish said as she kissed her. 

Jess slid out the window, dropped to the ground and headed for the Victor Village. She made her way through the train yard and the depleted coal mines nearby. She leapt and grabbed the top of the wooden fence. She pulled herself up and perched on the top. She nearly smiled. She had remembered it correctly. Almost all of she knew of District 12 was visible from that spot. 

She hadn’t seen any of it in person in nearly two years, not since she rode away from it on a train with Trish to go fight in the 73rd Hunger Games. Hogarth never sent her in to find gifted recruits. She figured Luke could handle on it on his own, so Jess was stranded in District 6 on her own as he got seven people to join them. She nearly smiled as she watched a shift of coal miners head out of the mines and into their neighborhoods, The Hob and the bars and restaurants in town. 

It all felt so fucking familiar and she had actually missed it. She wished she and Trish could just stay at her new house and be together and not worry about the mess they had been entangled in. But, they were only there for a few days. The higher ups in the revolution thought it would be good for Patsy Walker to make an appearance at Katniss and Peeta’s first day of the victory tour. 

Also, Trish had pitched District 12 for the shooting location for her next currently untitled movie so her director friend, Cressida, and a handful of location scouts and the screenwriter were a few days behind them. Jess almost wished she could stick around to see it. She has missed watching Trish work too. And it would be so much fucking better now that her mother was out of picture when it came to her career. But, Hogarth was sending her to some unknown location where she was supposed to help train the other gifted recruits, like she had any fucking idea how to do that. 

Jess took in the familiar District 12 for a moment. Then she jumped down from the fence, headed to the southwest and into the victor village. Four of the 10 houses were now occupied. She ran through the trees that lined it and jumped when she reached the backyard of the third one on the left. She landed quickly on the balcony. 

She pulled the key out of her pocket and unlocked the glass door. It lead into a room filled with musical instruments and a marble desk. The walls where covered in a horrible, patterned wallpaper. She smirked at it. 

_Guess she hasn’t had a chance to redecorate_ , Jess thought. 

Then Jess heard a crash and a yelp that sounded like Trish. Jess ran through the room and out into the hallway. She turned into another one on that overlooked the foyer below. Jess was about to fuck the stairs and jumped down to see what had happened. 

“Mother,” Trish stammered out. 

Jess changed her course and stood against the wall next to the railing and peered down at the front door. She could only see Trish.

Jess’ heart sunk and she clenched her fists angrily. Jess wanted more than anything to just jump down there and forget that Trish’s mom was one of the thousands of people who were supposed to continue believing she was dead.

“You haven’t invited me over, honey,” Dorothy Walker said. “I wanted to see what your new place looks like.” 

Trish anxiously backed closer to the front door. She was looking at the ground and holding her arms tensely at her sides. 

“I haven’t invited you over because you aren’t supposed to be here,” Trish told her. 

It gave Jess a small sense of relief. She looked almost as uneasy as she had before but she sounded different, more definite and stronger. 

“Now why is that?” her mother questioned back. 

Trish looked at her in shock. “Because of the restraining order,” Trish stated firmly. 

“Are you still going on about that silly thing?” Dorothy murmured. 

Trish flinched backwards as Jess heard her mother take a step toward her. She was shaken for a moment and then nodded swiftly. 

“Yes, I am,” Trish told her, not as confidently as before. “An-and I can have the peacekeepers here in a matter of minutes. So I need you to leave.” She grabbed the door handle with a shaking hand and pulled it open. “Goodbye, Mother.” 

Jess heard Dorothy’s heels click against the floor and then saw her walk past Trish, who held the door tensely. After her mother was outside, she wildly closed the door and turned the lock. She then went over to the key pad beside it and started arming the alarm system. 

Jess jumped over the railing and landed in the foyer behind her. Trish yelped again as she frantically turned and saw Jess. 

“Sorry,” Jess said softly. 

Trish nodded and took a few quick breathes. Jess started toward her and Trish limped the last step to close the gap between them. She wrapped her arms around Jess and buried her head in her shoulder. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Trish whispered. 

“Hey, no apologizing,” Jessica told her seriously as she hugged her back. 

Trish nodded against her girlfriend’s shoulder. “She must have gotten a key somehow. I’ll have the locks changed tomorrow and then she’ll...be…I’ll…be…” 

“You are safe now,” Jess promised her. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” 

Trish kissed Jess on the neck and then lowered her head onto her shoulder again, actually feeling safe in 12 for the first time in almost two years. 

Six days later, Johanna was wandering through the District 7 justice building. She was supposed to be down in the conference room on the first floor being interviewed by some assholes from Cesar Flickerman’s show about the Victory Tour’s stop in 7. 

_Just like every fucking year_ , Johanna thought as she wandered up the stairs and into a smaller conference room on the second floor. 

_Just like every fucking year_ , Johanna thought again as she smirked to herself. The table was covered in food and drinks that everyone was supposed to have while they make insufferable small talk after the interviews. She walked over to the bucket of ice and wine coolers and slipped multiple bottles into the pockets of her suit. She headed down the hall to the, well she didn’t know if it had a real name or not. She has always called it the couch room. 

She pushed open the door as she was untwisting the lid to one of the wine coolers. She stopped and was tripped up, only for a moment, by the person she saw sitting on couch, curled up with her arms around her knees. 

Johanna laughed and the girl anxiously turned toward her. 

“What are you doing here?” Katniss asked coldly. 

“Oh, shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Johanna asked as she swaggered over and sat beside her. “I’m not the nation’s golden child.” 

“I’m nobody’s golden child,” she grumbled. “Everyone hates me. And they are going to hate me even more when I get them all killed.” 

Johanna huffed. “You are very dramatic. Here,” she said as she held out another wine cooler. Katniss gazed at it uncertainly. “You need to relax.” 

Katniss snatched it out of her hand. “I am relaxed,” she said as she tried to pull off the lid and then realized it was a twist off. 

“And I don’t think everyone hated you out there,” Johanna told her. “Just most people.” 

Katniss scoffed. 

“And you didn’t get anybody killed,” she added. “This time.” 

Katniss quickly gazed over at her with a sense of betrayal in her eyes and then turned away and back to her wine cooler. Johanna bit the inside of her mouth, feeling a bit like an asshole. Maybe this girl wasn’t as crass as she thought she was, well at least not about death. Somehow it just made her fancy her more. 

“You’re an asshole,” Katniss stated after a long drink. 

Johanna just nodded with a smirk. 

“Maybe it would be easier that way. To just not give a shit about anything,” Katniss rambled. “Just not do what Snow wants, let everything fall apart and get killed like I was supposed to.” 

Johanna sighed. “You can’t do that, Katniss,” she told her. 

The younger girl look up at her and peered into her eyes with a look of desperation Johanna hadn’t seen since she watched her try to eat those berries in the arena. 

“Snow won’t let it be that easy,” Johanna stated seriously. “He won’t just kill you. He’ll take out your precious sister and your mother and that dopey boy that follows you around.” 

“I know that,” Katniss grumbled sadly as she peered down at the carpet. 

“Come on, Girl on Fire,” Johanna said as she stood and held a hand out to her. “You have a lot more people to piss off.” 

Katniss shook her head at her annoyed, but took her hand and let her drag her back toward where they were both supposed to be.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Johanna gets another chance to talk to Katniss at the Victor Tour after party, after getting some words of encouragement from Trish. Later, President Snow announces the rules for the third Quarter Quell.

The next time Johanna saw Katniss it was outside the President's mansion in the Capital. Katniss was walking through a line of Capital residents gawking at her, looking like a fucking goddess.

It had hardly been a week, but Johanna noticed how much more fierce and intimating the Girl on Fire was. Cinna had annoyed her since her own games but it was mostly for the same reason she admired him so much, he was good at making a tribute or a victor portray exactly what he wanted with only their outfit.

Johanna huffed in annoyance as the one person who didn't need the protection of Cinna's outfits to fit a persona appeared at her side.

She smiled as she took a sip of her champagne and laughed slightly. Johanna would have been pissed at her but it all seemed so kind and friendly. It actually made her more annoyed.

"Fuck off, Patsy," Johanna hissed at District 12's other claim to fame.

Trish just shook her head. "Have you talked to her?"

"About what?" Johanna shot back defiantly.

"Excuse the fire pun, but the torch the two of you are carrying for each other," Trish stated.

Johanna's gaze snapped to her. Her eyes met the movie star's but she rained in her emotions and stopped herself from reacting to what she had just said. She had to be joking, right? There was no fucking way she was that lucky. Her crush had to be one-sided and unrequited just like all the others had been.

Trish dropped her jaw in amazement and smiled. "You can't tell?"

Johanna fidgeted uncomfortably in the too tight dress the District 7 stylist had given her. "You're fucking with me," she hissed as she grabbed a glass off a passing waiter's tray of drinks.

Trish had an amused look on her face. "Believe me, Johanna. I know what scared, District 12 queer looks like."

Johanna shook her head. "She's engaged to the wimp ass now."

Trish just shrugged. "I always figured it was an act. It seems like Hogarth's style."

"Speaking from experience?" Johanna inquired.

Trish shook her head as she took a sip of her champagne. "Not really. Everything about my relationship with Jessica was true. But, Hogarth didn't stop me from telling everyone because breaking my heart was useful to her. I'm sure this is the same. Everyone wants the star-crossed lovers from District 12 to end up together. Engagement was the next logical step."

Johanna smirked at her. She hadn't been expecting any kind of insight for her. "You'd make a good mentor. Any chance we are avoiding you again?"

Trish laughed lightly. "I don't know yet," she peered into the sea of people on the dance floor behind them. "I would like to avoid it if I could but I don't have all the say."

"Still just a piece of their game?" Johanna asked with a raised eyebrow.

Trish began to nod but stopped when a blonde women with half her head shaved and vines tattooed on her head and neck threw her arm around Trish's shoulders. Trish smiled warmly at her then turned her gaze back to Johanna.

"Some players aren't as bad as others," Trish stated.

"I am a player then?" Cressida asked her with a pleased look.

"Would you deny that?" Trish asked.

"No," the director said with a smile. "Would you like to dance?"

Trish hesitated for a moment and then smiled at her. "Of course," she told her. She turned to Johanna for a moment before she let Cressida pull her onto the dance floor. "Go talk to her. I'm certain she will not mind," Trish told Johanna.

Johanna gulped down the rest of her champagne before she started heading around the dance floor. She didn't spot a waiter so she headed for the bar to refill her drink. While she was waiting for the bartender to refill it, she spotted Katniss anxiously walking away from everyone.

"Hey double my order, will ya?" Johanna yelled to the bartender.

He nodded and placed two flutes of champagne in front of her. She took them and headed in Katniss' direction. Johanna hadn't been sure where she was headed. She pushed open the ground level door and found herself in a hallway that looked like it belonged more in an office building than a private residents. She realized it only lead to the restrooms and a service kitchen. She went to the women's restroom and forced the door open with her hip.

Katniss jumped back from the counter. A flash of relief washed over for face for a moment until she rolled her eyes and groaned.

"Why are you always finding me when I want to be alone?" Katniss grumbled annoyed. She was leaning in front of the sinks with her hands placed firmly on the counter.

"Loneliness isn't always the best option," Johanna stated as she placed one of the glasses beside her arm.

Katniss glared at it. "That better not be more of that vomit drink."

"Bulimia in a bottle?" Johanna asked raising her eyebrows though Katniss only peered at her for a moment. "Just champagne."

She took the glass and drank a sip. She groaned and shook head a bit.

"You're naivete is adorable sometimes," Johanna said, trying to sound threatening but her sincerity made it's way through.

Katniss peered up at her. "Yeah, well how much did you know before your games?"

Johanna smirked as she leaned backwards against the counter. Katniss lifted her head slightly to meet her eyes. She nearly lost her facade as she took in how fantastic her neck line and eye makeup looked up close.

"Probably less than you," she told her. "I didn't sneak into fenced off parts of my district and teach myself to hunt."

Katniss peered at her for a moment and then looked back any the perfectly polished counter top.

"That was just part of taking care of my family," she said softly.

"Oh, I know," Johanna shot back. "Always the good daughter."

Katniss peered up at her with a smirk across her face. Johanna was pleased she was doing better at not offending her than she had last time they met.

"I always admired what you did," Katniss told her nervously.

Johanna snickered. "There was nothing admirable about it," she stated as she downed half her champagne.

"I thought there was," Katniss admitted seriously. "You showed everyone that they were idiots to dismiss you so quickly, just like how most girls are every year. It...it was fantastic."

The two of them made intense eye contact for a moment. Johanna held herself back despite the undeniable force pulling her toward Katniss.

Katniss peered down at the counter again. "I thought you were the smartest tribute to ever enter the arena."

Johanna shook her head, though Katniss wasn't looking at her. "Until you," she stated with a shrug.

Katniss turned her gaze to her uncertainly.

"That trick with the berries," Johanna told her in pure admiration. "That as the smartest move I have ever seen."

"I wasn't trying to be smart," Katniss stated as she maintained eye contact with Johanna. "I was just trying to protect someone I care about."

"That makes it even better," Johanna replied softly. She slowly leaned in closer to her. The girl didn't move closer, but she also didn't flinch away so Johanna continued.

Her lips met Katniss' and the Girl on Fire kissed her back with a feeling of nervous passion, but it lasted for only a moment. She pushed Johanna away forcefully.

Johanna collided with the bathroom wall. She peered at Katniss with confusion and concern. She took a few anxious breath and the look on her face was panicked and scarred but in no way offended.

 _Shit, Patsy was right_ , Johanna thought.

"Katniss," Johanna said quietly as she reached for her hand.

She pushed past her. "Just leave me alone, Johanna. I can't do this," Katniss said frantically as she left the restroom.

Johanna stood against the wall for a moment, clenching her entire body in annoyance and anger. She downed the rest of her champagne.

"Fuck," she yelled at her reflection in the mirror.

She picked up Katniss' glass and downed the rest of it too. She held it close to face her for a moment and peered at the out of place lipstick stain. Katniss had been wearing a deep red lipstick that was so not her. Johanna had chosen to ignore it until that moment, when her anger would not longer let her.

About a week later, all of the nation was gathered around their televisions for a mandatory viewing.

Hogarth watched President Snow walk onto the stage outside his mansion on the screen in her darkened, quiet living room as she sipped whiskey out of her glass.

Katniss sat stiffly beside her family on the couch in their new victor village house next door as the Panem anthem played.

_"Ladies and gentlemen of this great nation of ours," Snow's voice echoed over the gallery of people crowded before him in the Capital._

Trish pushed herself closer to Jessica in their bed in her Capital apartment as Snow's voice rang strangely out of the tablet in Trish's hands. Jessica placed her arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer.

_"We are gathered tonight to announce the rules for the 75th annual Hunger Games, the third Quarter Quell," Snow announced._

Peeta tensed as he stood firmly in his living room across the street from Katniss. He tried to tune out his mother shouting insults at his father upstairs, perfectly happy that his younger brothers had stolen the video game system from his bedroom and smuggled it into the basement.

_"It brings me great disdain to have to reveal the requirements for another Quarter Quell,"'Snow stated._

'Sure it does,' Mags signed angrily from her lounge chair she was sitting on the edge of at a beach side bar in District 4.

She and the rest of the beach was being illuminated by the light coming from the video of the President on the large screen secured into the sand in front of them.

Finnick chuckled as he finished his sip of the incredible fruity, slushy drink Annie had ordered for them. He handed the glass over to Annie who was lying beside him on the wooden lounge chair.

_"As in the last two Quarter Quells the rules were determined shortly after the fruitless rebels were subdued so many years ago," Snow continued._

"Oh sure, asshole," Johanna shouted at the screen on her kitchen wall as she consumed her dinner of leftovers and beer at the counter.

_Snow slowly peeled open the envelope and pulled out the cream colored card inside. He took a deep breathe and then read it aloud._

_"As decreed by the first government of Panem, the 75th Hunger Games shall require tributes to be reaped with no opportunity for volunteers and regardless of gender from their pool of surviving victors," Snow read. He peered up at the camera with a slight smirk on his face._

Peeta tried to hold back his tears, as his parents continued to yell above him and his brother whooped at the video game below him.

Across the street, Katniss was already fully panicking as her mother called out and her sister spouted innocent questions.

Next door, Hogarth yelled and threw her whiskey glass at the screen. The glass pushed the pull down screen against the wall before it shattered, raining bits of glass and drops of whiskey on the wooden floor below.

"Fuck!" Johanna yelled at her screen in 7 as she threw a knife at it. It sliced into the top and ripped a larger slash than she anticipated as it slid downward.

Mags quickly turned to face the two younger District 4 tributes. Finnick sat up quickly as Annie did the same. She dropped their glass onto the sand as she pulled her shaking hands to the side of her head. She started frantically, shaking her head and wincing as Finnick grasped her hands. She curled into herself but allowed Finnick to hug her tightly.

"No, no, no, no, no," Trish repeated frantically.

Jessica huffed angrily through clenched teeth as she couldn't think of anything to say to make Trish feel better.

Her girlfriend nearly collapsed into her chest as she dropped the tablet onto the bed. All Jessica could do was hug her nervously as she cried.

Jess took a frantic but deep and slow breath as she kissed Trish on the forehead twice.

"We'll figure something out," Jess said with faked confidence. "I promised to keep you safe and I will."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rebels deal with the Quarter Quell announcement and Jessica and Luke are doing their best to train the new gifted recruits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As with part 1, I apologize for my side super hero characters mostly being X-Men and not MCU. I'm just sticking with what I know.

Jess grabbed for the tablet as she felt it vibrating against their legs on the bed. She held it and answered the call as Trish continued to cling nervously to her side. Jess continued to rub her hand comfortingly against her back as she nervously shook into her shoulder.

"What, Hogarth?" Jessica hissed at her angrily.

The mentor gazed at the back of Trish's head, which was barely on the screen, for a moment. She meet eyes with Jessica again, with the look Jessica had only seen once before. It was the desperate look Hogarth gave her before she and Trish entered the arena.

Hogarth sighed and looked away with an expression of actual concern. Jessica was shocked.

"You saw the announcement, I presume?" Hogarth asked.

"Mandatory viewing," Jess started. "Of course, I did, we did." Jess corrected herself as a tear leaked through her shirt coldly onto her skin. She stretched down and kissed Trish on the forehead.

Jessica turned her gaze intensely back toward Hogarth. "He planned this, didn't he?" Jessica said angrily into the face of the screen.

Hogarth huffed as she took a sip of a new whiskey glass. "He must have."

Jess peered down at Trish for a moment before turning her attention back to Hogarth.

"This is about them," Jessica hissed at her. "The faces of your rebellion."

Hogarth sighed and shook her head. "It is not my rebellion, Jessica. You should know more than most how deep it runs now."

Jess just groaned at her.

"I do think it is about them," Hogarth stated. "Snow must have some idea about what is happening and he is trying to take out our two most powerful assets."

Jess felt Trish stir against her shoulder. She lifted her head as she sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"We have to protect her," Trish said slowly to Hogarth.

Jessica turned her head and met eyes with Trish for a moment. She could just barely see that stupidly brave look behind the fear and sadness.

"And you," Jess stated.

Trish shook her head at Jess.

"Jessica is right," Hogarth chimed in. "You are both too valuable to loss."

Trish looked at Jess seriously and the raven haired girl knew she was about to lose the argument that hadn't even started yet. Trish leaned in closer to Jess so Hogarth could see her in the screen.

"But we are going to protect Katniss at all cost this time," Trish stated.

Hogarth huffed and took another drink. Jessica fidgeted beside her girlfriend uncomfortably.

"I'm serious," Trish reiterated. "The two of you hacked some big schema to save me and make me as useful as possible for the rebellion last time. Make it for Katniss this time. I'm willing to die for this rebellion."

"Trish," Jess blurted quietly.

"I hope it doesn't happen," Trish admitted, quickly glancing as Jess before turning back to Hogarth. "But if one of us has to, I'd rather it be me than her. She deserves to live."

"So do you," Jess stated with forceful seriousness.

Trish gave her a sad, half smile before she leaned in and kissed her lightly. She pulled away after only a moment and turned back to Hogarth.

"You and the rest of the higher ups have had to discuss this?" Trish asked.

Hogarth smirked over her glass. "Not yet," she replied with a shrug. "We are meeting in the morning. I will be sure to mention your request."

"Good," Trish stated pleased.

"Hogarth," Trish and Jess heard a muffled voice shout from Hogarth's end of the call.

She perked up at the noise and then sighed annoyed.

"I'll call you tomorrow," she told Jess and Trish before she ended the call.

"You're mad," Trish stated after a few moments of silence.

"No," Jess replied.

Trish leaned in and slowly kissed her on the forehead. "There are no reasons to hide from me anymore."

Jess bit the inside of her cheek and pushed her back firmly against the headboard.

"Please," Trish mildly pleaded. "Just tell me."

Jess peered forward into the dark angrily.

Trish sighed disappointedly. She crossed her arms tightly against her chest and sat up stiffly beside Jess.

After a moment, the tense silence was too much for Jessica. Trish figured it would be, but she decided to add just a bit more fuel to the fire. 

“Fine. Shut me out like always. It is what you are good at,” Trish stated playing up her annoyance. 

Jessica groaned. “Your death wish,” she hissed through clenched teeth. 

Trish peered over at her but Jess didn’t meet her gaze. “I do not have a death wish.” 

“Yes, you do,” Jessica stated, turning to Trish. She was trying to sound angry but Trish could hear the fear in her voice. “You volunteered to fight in our games, you kept saying you were fine with dying for me, you jumped in front of that tree and now you are willing to get yourself killed for some girl we barely know. Like fuck, Trish. I-I can’t handle this. How am I supposed to keep you safe when I’m not even sure you will keep yourself save?” 

Jess recovered from her ranting by taking a few deep, shaky breathes. Trish grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her into a kiss. Jess tried to jerk away at first but then let Trish kiss her and she kissed her back. It washed away all her anger. But, it didn’t do much to subdue her fear.

“It isn’t a death wish,” Trish admitted softly as she pressed her forehead against Jess’. “I just understand what might happen. I know you are going to do everything you can to save me, just like you did last time.” Trish paused for a moment and wiped a tear out of her eyes. “But, I am going to protect someone this time.” 

“There is a chance your name won’t be picked,” Jess stated. 

Trish sadly smiled and shook her head. “I doubt that. Those rules…they were too specific. Snow wants me and Katniss back in the arena. And when does he not get what he wants?” 

A week later, Jess struggled to steady herself in mid-air as she went flying into a pile of rotted corn in middle of an abandoned crop field somewhere in District 11. As she was bracing for colliding with the corn, a portal appeared below her and she landed on a muddy ground a few feet from the corn pile. Jess groaned as the mud splashed around her. 

“Sorry, best I could do,” Clarice stated as she appeared beside. She held a hand out to Jess. 

She took it and pulled herself up. “No harm. That was good,” Jess told her as she tried to wipe the mud off her face with her sleeve. 

“What’s the objective?” Clarice asked her. 

Jess raised an eyebrow at her with a slight look of disappointed. 

“I was part of the kidnapped group,” she stated. “I only just escaped the barn.” 

“Right,” Jess answered. 

Jessica had been at the rebellion’s secret gifted people training camp for almost a week now. Hogarth had charged her and Luke to teach the other recruits to control their powers and how best to use them in a fight. Apparently, there used to be a school to teach people like them but it had been blow off the face of the Earth with the rest of District 13. So, Jessica, Luke, a handful of training exercises and abandoned land in 11 was the best they could do. 

_Maybe we aren’t fucked_ ,Jessica thought as she looked from Clarice to the groups of people fighting in the field around her. 

“Get Luke to safety,” Jess told the younger girl. 

She peered at her confused. “Does he know that?” she asked as Luke continued to fight off a handful of people in the center of the field. 

Jess shook her head. “He doesn’t. Anyone with a white armband is a peacekeeper, so watch out,” she told Clarice as she ran at the boy with metal skin attacking Luke. He stumbled only slightly. Then Marie dropped out of the sky from one of Clarice’s portals. She placed her hands on his neck as she landed on his back and started draining him of his powers. His skin slowly returned to normal and he started to stumble further away from Luke. Jessica hit him just hard enough in the face to knock him out.

Luke stood there looking impressed. 

“Exercise isn’t over,” Jess said as she ran past him punching his arm. 

He ran after her. “I’m the target this time?” he asked. 

Jess nodded as she lightly pushed one of the youngest recruits out of their way. She and Luke continued to run to the barn, which was the safe-point. They were almost there when ground shook intensely and they both tripped. Jess turned onto her back in time to see a path of ice form above them and the ice boy, from District 1, slide down it and encased Daisy, from District 4, in ice. Jess and Luke scrambled to their feet and continued for the barn. A tiny girl sprinted up to them and placed a hand on each of her shoulders. They made it through the wooden wall of the barn and appeared in the commanded center of their sad little operation. 

Jessica nodded at one of the non-gifted rebels who was peering at her from the desk of computers. 

“Mission accomplished,” the girl with the foreign accent told everyone through their communication ear-pieces. “Stand down and return to command.” 

“Still. Really?” Kitty questioned Luke as she handed him a trash can. 

He dry heaved into it a few times. “You and Clarice,” he stated, “are still making me nausea.” 

“Stomach isn’t unbreakable?” Kitty quipped. 

Luke smirked between heaves. “Apparently not.” 

There was a loud beeping from the three computers crammed onto the desk against the wall. 

“Ma’am, there is a mandatory viewing coming in,” the foreign girl said. “Probably the Reaping footage.” 

Jess nodded. “Send it to the main screen. Tell everyone else to hurry.” 

Jessica ignored what was said through the comms as she took a step closer to the video footage that was being projected onto the barn wall. 

After a bright title screen told them it was the Reaping Recap, the footage cut to the Justice Building outside of District 12. Jess felt Luke pat her on the back as she watched Pam pick a name out of the single bowl in front of her. She walked up to the microphone. She anxiously looked to her right where Katniss and Peeta were standing. 

_“Katniss Everdeen,” she announced._

Jess sighed in frustration and shook her head at the screen. 

“Ya’ll think this was planned?” Marie asked as she stood beside Jessica. 

“Had to be,” Clarice added. 

“If President Snow is looking to take out important rebellion members, Katniss is a good place to start,” Kitty said. 

“Ten bucks Patsy’s name is picked next,” Peter added. 

“Cool it, will ya?” Luke shot at him. 

“Don’t bother, he’s right,” Jessica grumbled. 

She intensely peered at the screen. Part of her knew Trish’s name was going to be called, but the other part was desperately hoping that another was. She had a strange feeling of almost wanting Trish’s name to be called. Of course she didn’t want Trish to go back into the arena, but she knew Trish didn’t mind and out of every possible victor-tribute, except for maybe Johanna Mason, Trish was Katniss’ best chance. During the year she pretended to be dead, Jess lost almost all hope in Hogarth. But, she was slowly regaining it and she faintly believed that she and the other higher ups had to have a plan to stop this games from being a normal 23-person murder fest. 

_Pam took a desperate breath at the name in her hands and gazed to her left at Hogarth and Trish._

_“Patricia Walker,” she announced weakly._

Jessica watched Trish shake for a moment but then she took a step toward Pam and shook hands with Katniss like she was supposed to. Then more peacekeepers than usual quickly stormed the stage and pushed the two of them back toward the justice center. Hogarth, Peeta and Pam called out in protest, but the feed quickly cut to regular looking Reaping footage from District 11. 

“What was that?” Marie blurted out what was on everyone’s minds. 

Luke shook his head uncertainly and looked to Jess for guidance. 

“These games aren’t going to be like the others,” she said simply allowing all the horrifying thoughts to click in her head. 

Trish had barely survived the last Hunger Games she was in and this was basically the super Hunger Games specializing in killing her and the girl she had sworn to protect. Jess nearly collapsed onto the barn floor as she quickly realized how much harder it was going to be to save Trish this time around. She landed on the ground in a sitting position. 

She was unsure if it was unknowing or some sort of secret pack but the rest of her team sat on the dusty barn floor with her and watched the rest of the Reaping Recap. 

When Johanna finally got to see the footage she was seated on the bed in the Tribute One bedroom of the District 7 train to the Capital. She figured she would be reaped again. There were only four tributes from 7, so she was headed back into the arena with violence obsessed Blight. 

The recap was about halfway over when she started watching. Two people she barely knew from 6 were reaped and two people she may have interacted with once were reaped from District 5. She turned up the volume slightly after them. 

She was seated on the edge of her bed and was leaning forward so far she was nearly off it as the District 4 handler walked over to the microphone with the name in her hand. 

_“Finnick Odair,” she announced.”_

“Fuck,” Johanna yelled as she slammed her hand down onto the mattress beside her. 

She watched Finnick barely react and then stride over to the handler. Johanna punched the mattress again, trying to suppress her anger as she watched Annie howler out and shake uncontrollably. The elderly tribute standing beside her tried to calm her down. 

The handler pulled out another name. The elderly tribute, Johanna simply knew as Mags, slowly turned to the handler after her name was called. She kissed Annie on the forehead and then walked over to shake hands with a teary looking Finnick. 

The footage continued and Johanna got up to pour herself a drink from the small bar in her room. She heard names she sort of recognized be called out for the victor-tributes from 3, 2 and 1. She only remembered Enobaria from District 2 because she was that fucking weirdo with the shark teeth. The two from District 1 had rich sounding names and were model pretty, which made Johanna think she knew them but their descriptions did meet about everyone she had ever met from 1. 

The Reaping Recap repeated as soon as its first run finished. Johanna hoped it would so she could see the District 12 footage. 

She sat back down and took a sip of her drink as the bullshit intro stuff played. The footage eventually got to the Reaping footage. That super busty handler from 12 pulled out the first name and peered over at Katniss and the dough boy. 

_“Katniss Everdeen,” she announced._

Johanna punched her mattress again. 

“Fuck,” she called out as she drank most of her drink, too fast so it burned her throat as it went down. 

_There has to be some plan_ , Johanna thought to herself as she watched the Girl on Fire shake hands with everyone’s favorite District 12 actress Patsy Walker on the stage in 12. 

She rushed over and opened the second draw of the bedside table. She sighed in relief that the tablet she was told by the head District 7 rebel would be there actually was. The screen was dark except for small white letters that read “voice activation.” 

She held down the enter button. “Johanna Mason,” she stated. 

It beep at her and then opened. She sighed in relief and quickly scrolled into the messages. She hadn’t had a meeting with any other of the rebels since the one the day after the announcement. There was a summary of what had happened in that meeting and a notice for the next one that would be held once all the victor-tributes reached the Capital. 

It was titled “saving the assets.” Johanna hit the button to indicate she would be attending. She stared at it for a moment after she sent it. 

_This better fucking work,_ Johanna thought to herself. She peered back up at the television screen and saw a flash of Katniss looking just as beautiful and rebellious as ever before the recap cut to a commercial.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish has a heart-to-heart with District 12's younger victor-tribute, which is cut short by more rebellion planning.

Trish heard a crash as she was walking from her bedroom in the District 12 penthouse to the kitchen. She went to investigate and figured her glass of water could wait. 

She crossed her arms across her chest and leaned against the doorframe of the room that was once Jessica's. For two Hunger Games in a row it had been Katniss'.

Trish watched the girl sweep bits of glass into a tipped over trash can as she muttered to herself quietly. Katniss seemed to notice the dim blue light outside her door from Trish's leg brace before anything else. 

She flinched back and stood with the brush still in her hand. She quickly held it behind her leg. Trish smirked at her, with the only other light in the room being the city ones outside her window, Trish could barely see her. 

"I broke some glass thing," Katniss admitted with a shrug.

Trish smiled. "Did you throw it at something?"

Katniss fidgeted uncomfortably.

Trish took a step inside and motioned at the television on the wall. "Jessica threw a lamp through it our first day here." 

Trish peered away from Katniss for a moment and looked sadly at the carpet. Part it was for actual longing to have Jess with her, but it was also because of the sympathetic and nervous look Katniss was giving her. Trish had to remind herself that Katniss still thought her girlfriend had been killed in their games and she had probably heard the rumors that were spreading about her and Cressida. 

"A specific reason for the glass thing meeting it's untimely end?" Trish asked.

Katniss groaned as she set the brush on the bedside table and sat on the edge of the bed. "Only one?" she asked annoyed. 

Trish laughed lightly. She leaned against the wall again so to put less weight on her left leg. "I guess it is unfair to ask you for just one."

Katniss stared at it for moment and then looked up and bit her lower lip. Trish raised her eyebrows at her. 

"Ask whatever you like," Trish said in reassurance.

"Was it an act?" Katniss asked quietly. "For you and Jessica Jones?"

Trish took a deep breath. "No," she stated. "The story," she said with an uncertain shrug, "about us was true. We did start dating three weeks before the reaping." Trish looked down at her nearly healed but since braced and weak leg. "This actually happened on our one month anniversary."

Katniss nodded anxiously and peered down at the bed. 

"It was, wasn't it? An act, I mean," Trish stated as she walked over the bed. "For you and Peeta," she said a she sat on the opposite side of the bed from her.

She peered up at her anxiously. Trish's eyes widened as she took in just how scarred she looked. 

"Katniss," Trish said seriously. "I know how terrifying it feels and that a lot it going on, but I am your side."

"So you aren't going to try and kill me next week?" Katniss shot at her.

Trish smiled back at her. "No," she told her. "I like the idea of both District 12 tributes surviving, again."

"They aren't going to be stupid enough to put poison berries in the arena again," Katniss grumbled.

Trish shrugged. "There are other ways."

"What?" she blurted in reply.

Trish didn't get a chance to explain because Hogarth appeared in Katniss' doorway and locked eyes with Trish.

"We have to talk," Hogarth stated seriously. Trish nodded. With the way she said 'we' Trish figured it stood for the rebellion and not just the two of them.

"My room," she told her.

Trish nodded again. Hogarth quickly left. 

"I'm sorry, Katniss," Trish told her as she stood. "But if you'd ever like to talk more, don't be afraid to."

She weakly nodded. Trish stood and headed for the door. She stopped once she was nearly out of the room. 

"Johanna Mason," Katniss said quickly. Trish turned to her and watched her deflate into herself, as if she instantly regretted saying it.

"What about her?" Trish asked softly. 

"That's my reason, for breaking the glass thing," the girl muttered uncomfortably. 

Trish gave her a warm smile.

"I'm not saying I'm sure I...like her or anything like that. I...I just don't want her to die," Katniss struggled to admit.

"Well, that is a very good start," Trish said with a pleased expression as she left the room in pursuit of Hogarth. 

All the people in Hogarth's room snapped their heads toward Trish as she entered. 

"Whoa," Trish exclaimed, throwing her heads up in defense. 

Hogarth sighed and leaned down to see the computer screen on the desk against the wall. 

"I see my assumption about 'we' was correct," Trish stated as she closed the door behind her. 

"With more to come," Cinna told her as she stepped in front of her.

Trish hugged him with a smile. "It is good to see you again, Cinna."

"You also," he replied as he pulled away, met her eyes through the darkened room and nodded. 

Hogarth hit the computer screen and huffed angrily as only the blue screen continued to project onto the wall beside it. 

"Relax. It's almost through," Cressida told Hogarth as she looked up from the tablet she was holding her on knees on the edge of the bed. 

"Since when were you from District 12?" Trish asked her playfully. 

"Oh, I am here strictly on business," Cressida said sarcastically.

Trish raised an eyebrow at her confused.

Cressida scoffed. "Of course, they didn't tell you," she said shaking her hand. "Capital Pictures has only 'delayed' the production of the untitled Patsy Walker project."

Trish shook her head as she sat on the bed beside her.

"They are that certain I am going to survive?" Trish asked. "I don't know if I should be flattered or offended."

"I would say flattered," Cressida told we with a cheeky tone.

Hogarth groaned. "Offended. The studio can't cancel the project because that means you are already dead. Nobody is going to invest in a dead woman's movie."

Cressida rolled her eyes and shook her head at Trish, who weakly smiled.

"It's up," Cressida stated after hitting a few things on her tablet. 

A blank screen, like the one they had projected on Trish's apartment wall months before, appeared on the wall.

"I thought we couldn't receive outside calls without them being traced," Trish asked.

"Beetee from 3 designed most of the Capital's security systems," Cinna told her.

"Which also means he knows how to get around them," Cressida added excitedly.

Trish was about to add a joking comment but was stopped when multiple video feeds appeared on the computer screen and then the wall. Her eyes were quickly drawn to the grainy video in the top left corner. It's point of origin displayed District 11. The district's rebel leader was standing in the foreground but he was being flanked by Luke and Jessica. 

Trish smiled hoping she would see her but thought it was unlikely. There were almost 20 smaller video feeds creating a border around the one in the center. It usually picked the feed with the loudest sounds to be the center one. Currently it was the feed from District 8. Trish figured they were meeting in the basement off the textile factory again. 

"Everyone in the Capital is still well and good, I hope," Paylor from 8 stated.

Everyone in the 12 room, the three in the 11 room, the two in the 10 room and the two in the nine room acknowledged their safety. Johanna nodded being the sole member in the 7 room. Hogarth's estranged wife, Wendy, and the two victor-tributes nodded from the 6 room. Beetee and the other victor-tribute, Wiress, voiced their safety from the 3 room. As did Finnick and Mags from the 4 room. 

"To the plan then?" voiced the District 5 rebel leader.

"Most of the plan in going to come once we are in the arena," Beetee informed everyone. "We will have a better idea of what we will be up against then."

"But all victor-tributes are in agreement, correct?" Paylor asked. "Protecting the Mockingjay is everyone's main priority?"

Multiple people nodded or voiced their agreement.

"Mockingjay?" Trish whispered to Cressida.

"Katniss," she replied with a smirk.

Trish nodded in understanding for Cressida and the video feed.

"And Patsy Walker?" the rebel leader from 12 called out.

Hogarth peered over her shoulder at Trish. 

Multiple rebels nodded in agreement again.

"We are in favor of protecting Patsy too," Finnick stated. 

"Us too," Beetee chimed in. 

Trish took a deep breath and stood. 

"I appreciate everyone who is willing to protect me," Trish stated. She caught a glimpse of the District 12 rebel and watched Jessica push Luke aside so she could get a better look. Trish swallowed nervously. "But don't make me your first priority, I'm fine with second. Katniss is far more important."

Hogarth nodded at her pleased. 

"Do we have the extraction plans down at least?" the District 7 rebel leader asked.

"We do," Hograth answered. "The hovercraft will be on standby and the special team will be brought in if needed."

"How is this special team going?" the rebel leader from 3 asked.

"Jessica?" Hogarth asked.

Jess sighed and took a step in front of the rebel leader with her arms crossed tightly against her chest. Trish took a step toward the screen to get a better look at her. 

"Good," she replied simply.

Luke punched her lightly in the shoulder blade. She turned to him and Trish saw him motion for her to continue.

"The exercises have been running smoothly and everyone is improving," Jessica explained. "But, they are just a bunch of barely trained kids. I'd like to keep them out of it if possible."

"We will keep that in mind," the District 6 rebel leader stated. 

"Everyone just continue to prepare yourselves for whatever lies ahead," Paylor stated.

"We will keep you posted from this end," Hogarth added. "There will be another meeting after the first four hours in the arena."

"See you then," the District 12 rebel leader said before he ended their feed. 

Trish was barely able to spot Jess walk almost out of frame and say something to a brunette girl, who appeared to be at a desk. 

The video feeds started cutting out one-by-one.

"Hogarth," Trish blurted, much more frantically than she anticipated. 

She stood up from the computer screen. 

"Could you leave the feed running? Just for a moment?" Trish asked. 

Hogarth sighed annoyed. "You have the length of one drink."

"Or maybe two," Cinna added as he nudged her slightly toward the door. 

"I'll join them," Cressida said as she stood and began to follow the other two out. "Doubt you want me to stay for this."

Cressida had closed the door before Trish could reply. She stood silently in front of the camera as the barn Jess appeared to be in mostly cleared out and all the other video feeds ended. 

When only three feeds were left, Johanna Mason chuckled with a smirk to get her feed to the main position.

"Disgusting," she stated to Trish and then quickly cut her feed.

The two of them were left alone. 

"Hi," Trish said simply.

Jess nearly smiled. "Hi, Trish," she replied.

They were silent for a moment. They both just gaze at each other. Jess saw a nearly clear, but rather dark video of Trish that was being projected on the barn wall. Everyone had cleared out expect for the non-gifted rebel genius, who insisted on staying to make sure the feed wasn't breached. With the amount of times, Jess had caught her making out with Daisy from 4 behind the barn, she doubted she would relay anything from her private conversation with Trish. 

Trish didn't even mind that her video of Jess was grainy and lined and sections of the screen would disappear for seconds at a time. She was just so happy to see her again. 

"I don't really have anything to say," Trish admitted.

Jess smirked. "Me either," she grumbled. 

Trish smiled. "You hardly ever do," she said as a joke but got chocked up at the end.

Jess told a step closer to the camera. "Trish."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Trish repeated as she looked away from the camera.

Jess shook her head forcefully. "Stop apologizing."

Trish gave a small nod and looked back up at the camera. 

"When do you think we will see each again?" Trish asked sadly.

Jess shrugged uncertainly, twisting her face to suppress her similar feelings. "The arena extraction, probably."

"So, after the games," Trish sated anxiously. 

Jess nodded as slowly. Trish let a sad smile slide across her face. 

"Try not to do anything too stupid," Jess instructed her.

"I'll promise," Trish replied with an actual smile, "if you promise to get me out safely."

"You know I will," Jess stated.

"Good," Trish replied. "Then I'll do my best."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Johanna's help Katniss begins to understand more about the revolution.

"Huh," the District 10 victor-tribute said as he took a step back from his opponent in the training center. "I really thought you'd be better at this."

Trish shook her head at him. He had forced her backwards and caused her to land awkwardly on her left leg, which sent her stumbling backward in pain. Cinna and the medical staff had made her a sleek black version of the bulky white brace she usually wore. It was just for support and didn't have the same healing elements, so it helped but not much.

"I never said swordplay was a strength of mine," Trish pointed out as she collected her blunted knife off the ground.

"But from what I've seen of you," he added.

"Me or a character of mine?" Trish asked with a hint of annoyance.

Someone put his arm around her shoulder and smirked at her.

"I bet we could change the opinion," Finnick said with a cheeky smile. "You still remember our fight scene from _Together We Fight_?"

Trish sighed. "I do, but what is this going to prove?"

"Nothing," Finnick stated as he stepped over to the weapons rack. He tossed a larger knife at Trish and picked up a large one himself. "But it'll be fun." He examined his weapon for a moment. "These are blunted, don't hold back."

Trish groaned. "Fine," she stated. "'Has it really come to this, Sergeant Collins?'"Trish said dramatically, quoting from their last movie together. 

"'I'm afraid so, Lance Corporal Beaufoy'," Finnick reenacted. "'You must have known I didn't want it to come to this'."

"'It is too late for that...sir'," Trish stated dramatically as she fake yelled and swung her knife at Finnick. 

He blocked it with his and leaned in as close to her as he could. Trish smiled at how much more forcefully and intense they were being. 

"'I can't let you get away this'," Trish stated as she upper cut him in the ribs. 

With the actual and sort of movie stars reenacting a scene from their latest movie, Johanna was easily able to sneak off to see Katniss who was alone at the shooting station at the other end of the training center. 

She gracefully and athletically turned and dodged one oncoming hologram attacker before shooting him and the next three with arrows. Johanna leaned against the glass beside the door and smirked in at the younger girl. 

"Damn," Johanna said impressed. 

"'How long have we known each other? How could you betray me like this?'" Trish yelled as she pinned Finnick to the ground and started punching him.

Katniss cocked an eyebrow at them. Johanna laughed slightly. 

"They are just reenacting a scene from their latest movie," Johanna told her. 

"Oh," Katniss said with faked politeness, but little real interest. "I didn't think it was that bad."

"I wouldn't have seen it if I didn't know so many people involved. The world has enough irrelevant violence, I don't need to see more of it," Johanna stated.

Katniss gazed at her with a look of admiration. Johanna felt a bit embarrassed and stopped herself from smiling. 

"Why do they do it?" Katniss asked with a touch of true confusion.

"Their movie careers?" Johanna asked.

Katniss nodded. "They have seen just as much violence as we have and then they chose to be the stars of more violent nonsense. I don't get it," she said with a hint of anger in her voice.

"You really haven't been paying attention to newer Patsy Walker movies," Johanna stated.

"I'm not a fan of Capital bullshit," Katniss hissed back.

Johanna smirked at her. "Neither am I or Patsy. You're smart, sometimes. Pay attention," she told her as she walked away.

Johanna wasn't sure if it was her encouragement or someone else's but Katniss seemed like she had at least a faint idea of the rebellion during the Cesar Flickerman interviews. 

Johanna got too angry and her's was a shouting, rambling mess in the middle of a bunch of heartfelt, meaningful interviews from people who thought they had already paid their due to the Capital.

Johanna gazed at Katniss anxiously as she walked onto the stage and sat beside Cesar. Johanna was standing on the victor-tribute raisers between a strung out morphling from 6 and a twitchy Blight. But she was able to ignore them as she saw how fucking fantastic Katniss looked in the wedding dress Cinna had designed. It was just for this interview, the Girl on Fire had admitted to Johanna during a training day. Katniss did her usual horribly awkward interactions. Johanna would have vomited if she didn't find it all so god damn endearing and adorable. 

After a few questions, Cesar asked Katniss to spin around in her dress, like last year. She did until the entire wedding dress went up in flames and transformed into a Mockingjay. 

Johanna saw the two people from 6 beside her and a few others tense up at the reveal. It was by far the biggest display of resistance the rebellion had shown so far. Johanna could tell by the way Katniss reacted and her looks to Cinna, who was seated in the crowd, she had no idea it was going to happen. 

Johanna felt incredibly anxious and mad for a moment. It was fucking bullshit that Katniss was being used like this without anyone telling her the full plan. But, then Katniss moved to her spot on the raisers, Trish Walker walked onto the stage and Johanna realized it wasn't the first time.

Johanna nearly groaned to herself in annoyance a few times at how fucking perfect Trish was in her interview. She nailed every question with just the right amount of anger, fear and charisma. 

"You seemed very different the last time we had you on this stage," Cesar stated.

"I was," Trish replied with a nod.

"So have you recovered?" Cesar asked.

"From this?" Trish stated, lifting her left leg that was in the normal white brace. Cinna had cut her dress so it would show it off. "Mostly." Trish paused to allow the crowd to laugh. 

Cesar cackled and Johanna groaned to herself. 

"For the rest of it?" Trish added with a shrug. "I'm not sure if I ever will. I loved Jessica Jones and...I don't think that is ever going to go away," she struggled to say. 

Cesar nodded somberly. Johanna peered at her amazed. 

"If she was still here, what do you think she would say about you being in the games again?" Cesar asked.

Triah laughed to herself. "We are not allowed to use swear words on here, are we?"

The audience laughed again.

"We would preferred you didn't," Cesar replied with a joking tone.

Trish smiled. "Well beyond what I can't say, she would want me to do anything to keep myself safe and she would get mad at me for wanting to save everyone else." 

Trish choked up at the end and Johanna figured she had been tapping into her nearly a year of memories of Jessica being dead.

As Trish left Cesar's side and joined the rest of the tributes, she could feel the growing solidarity and took Katniss' hand as everyone stood together.

Their solidarity continued into the night as the victor-tributes held a party on the roof of the tribute center. 

Johanna wandered away from Finnick and Mags after about 10 minutes of the seemingly in depth conversation they were having in sign language, which she understand none of. She walked past the rather small video viewing booth that was settled against one wall. 

She heard and saw a familiar movie playing inside. She took a step inside and slowly moved to the first of the six rows in front of the screen, in what was nothing more than a black tent. 

"Please be who I hope I just found watching this," Johanna asked the person sunken into the lounge chair in the front row as Trish Walker screamed as she shot a machine gun at group of nondescript soldiers and Finnick leapt off the tank and started stabbing them. 

Katniss peered around the edge of the chair and smiled at Johanna.

She shrugged with a scoff. "I guess you will do," she stated. "It would have been funnier to find Trish or Finnick being that self-aborsed."

Katniss nodded weakly. "I get what you were saying, about them."

"Do you?" Johanna questioned as she sat in the seat beside Katniss.

The younger girl nodded.

"Care to prove it?" Johanna asked as she leaned over the arm of her chair and closer to Katniss, who looked a bit uncomfortable but didn't move away.

"We don't know who they are fighting," Katniss said as she pointed at the screen. "And we don't even know who they are. We're supposed to like them because they are the main characters."

"And Patsy Walker and Finnick Odair," Johanna added with a smile. 

"Yeah," Katniss said with a dash of excitement. "But they might be rebels. They might be fighting against the Capital."

Katniss turned in her chair and leaned closer to Johanna, who had already been inching closer to her. 

Katniss gazed at her lips and seemed to contemplate for a moment. Johanna inched closer to her. Her skin felt like it was on fire and her mind started to race but she used all her remaining brain power to act like a fucking gentlewoman.

"Is it OK?" Johanna asked nervously.

Katniss waited a bit too long and then finally nodded.

"Yeah," she added as she leaned into Johanna. As soon as their lips met, Johanna ran her hand up Katniss' back and into her hair to distract herself from how fucking turned on and excited she was that is was actually, finally happening between her and the girl on fire. The heroic action movie music in the background was making Johanna even more excited. 

"Oh shit," the two of them heard with a swish of the curtain being pushed aside as someone entered the viewing tent.

Katniss quickly pulled herself away from Johanna.

"Finnick!" Trish hissed through her teeth as she followed him in."I think the tent is occupied."

He continued to walk to the front row and sat in the chair across the aisle from Katniss. "Come on, Trish. You are a badass in this next scene."

Trish peered at the screen intensely for a moment and then nodded. "I agree," she answered. "But I do not think they want company."

"Oh come on just for a bit," Finnick said, distractedly as he watched Trish's character continue to fire the machine gun at their attackers.

"Give it up, Patsy," Johanna said moving into a sitting position beside Katniss. "Despite his reputation, he is a grandpa about bedroom matters."

"Shh!" Finnick replied as he leaned closer to the screen.

Trish shook her head and took the seat beside him. "I am sorry if we interrupted anything," Trish stated as she sat down.

Johanna rolled her eyes at Finnick. Trish noticed and bit her lip to suppress a laugh.

Katniss reached over and grabbed Johanna's hand. The older girl peered down with pleased shock. She peered up at Katniss, who looked slightly anxious but shrugged.

Johanna smirked and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. 

"Nothing at all," Katniss said as they turned back to the others. 

Trish had already turned back to the television screen but the smile on her face told them she had seen all she needed to.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish is missing Jessica as she gets closer to entering the arena without her.

Trish jolted awake at the sound of an explosion and reached for Jess beside her. She groaned in annoyance as she sat up, forced to remind herself that she wasn't in her Capital apartment with her sound proof walls and Jess was still at the resistance base in District 11.

She heard another explosion go off. She peered out the glass wall of her room and realized it was the fireworks from the Hunger Games celebration. A blue and purple firework went off just outside the window and lite it the same way it had during her and Jess' last night before the arena. 

Trish ran her hand through her hair a few times before she got up and walked over to the closet.

She hadn't been the only one to ask Beetee about setting up another untraceable video feed. He said it was too dangerous being so close to when everything was happening. 

Jessica's leather jacket was the only thing hanging in the closet, Trish grabbed it and carried it back to the bed. She pulled the covers up to her waist and then laid the jacket over herself. She had been forcing Jessica to wear it as often as she could since she climbed onto her balcony about a year ago and then stole it back from her before she had to leave a few days before the reaping. 

It smelled like Jessica but not as much as it when Cinna put it on her shortly after she won the 73rd Hunger Games. Trish wasn't even sure if the way she remembered it was real or if her memory had just turn it into some magical scent she could never recreate. 

She tried to think back to all the times she had laid under Jessica's jacket like this. She was aware how silly it seemed but it was one of the few things that could calm her down when she truly thought about how her next Hunger Games were less than nine hours ahead of her and she might never see Jessica alive again. 

She mind flashed back to one of the first times.

_They were 17 and Jessica had been living with them for three years. Trish had just started to realize that every time she turned down a boy for a date it was because she realized she would rather be at home with Jessica._

_Like most nights after her mother had fallen asleep, they went into the backyard and laid on the hill to look at the stars. Trish shivered for about the fifth time. Jess huffed and sat up to remove her jacket. She quickly threw it over Trish and then laid back down._

_Trish turned her head to smile at her but Jess was looking at the sky again._

_"I told you not to protect me," Trish said repeating the promise Jessica had already broken so many times._

_"It's a jacket," Jess grumbled in reply._

_"Well if that is all," Trish said lightly with a smile as gazed up at the stars._

Back in her room in the District 12 penthouse, Trish stared up at the ceiling and hoped she and Jess could just get back for the simplicity of looking at the stars in their backyard again. 

Jessica was having a similar angry thought at she punched a member of her team with all her strength in the training barn of the District 11 resistance camp. Pete groaned and stepped backward slightly as the punches landed on his metal skin. 

He grabbed Jessica by the shoulders and flung her over his shoulder at the wall behind him.

"Kurt," Luke called out from the sidelines, where he stood flanked by the other super recruits, they had taken to calling themselves.

Kurt, the newest, disappeared from Luke's side, caught Jessica in mid-air, appeared back at his side and set Jessica down. 

"Nicely down," Luke told the boy with a grin.

He nodded with a small smile.

"Jessica," Daisy said as she entered the training room. "We got it up."

Jess frantically turned to Luke. 

"Go, I got this," he stated. 

Jess nodded and followed Daisy to the control room. 

"You sure it's untraceable?" Jessica asked Daisy, who was a gifted recruit and the team's resident tech expert. She and the resistance assigned medic/tech operator had bee working to find a way to stream an untraceable Capital feed to the base so they would still be able to see live coverage of the Quarter Quell.

"We're sure," Daisy told her as she pushed the door of the barn that acted as the control room open. 

They had watched the reaping footage on a regular feed but now that the extraction plan was getting closer they needed to keep themselves hidden.

Daisy headed over to the table and leaned over to see the single computer screen. Jessica slowly walked together the projection on the wall of the barn.

"The games don't start for another 10 minutes, ma'am," Simmons told her.

Jessica just nodded as she watched the footage switch between each of the tributes in their loading rooms as Cesar and Claudius spoke some Capital nonsense. 

"Why they all have wet suits on?" Daisy asked.

Jessica shrugged. "Water in the arena? The stylists get some hints."

"Can they all swim?" Simmons asked.

"I hope so," Daisy added.

"Trish can," Jessica stated, relieved that Trish did that one stupid movie when Patsy Walker joined a beach patrol for a summer job. The whole movie was really just an excuse to put her on a bikini but she had learned to swim in the process.

"Finnick too and Katniss, I think," Jessica added. 

"And Mags," Daisy chimed in.

"The ones from 11, too. There's a big lake most people learn in," Marie said. 

Jess' gaze snapped behind her as almost all the others appeared. 

Luke sheepish walked in behind them.

"You are supposed to be training," Jess scolded them.

"Wouldn't it be better for us to see this?" Kitty asked. 

Pete nodded. "The bloodbath will be the best gage of who is and who isn't a part of the revolution."

"I tried to stop them," Luke admitted. 

"Fine," Jessica hissed at her team annoyed.

The video jumped from Katniss to someone from five to Finnick to Beetee to Trish and then back to Katniss for a moment before switching again.

"Can you isolate one of these feeds?" Jessica asked. 

Daisy leaned over Simmons and took the keyboard. 

"Let me try," Daisy replied.

The other girl huffed. "It seems rather impossible in the next six minutes."

"Still worth a shot," Daisy stated.

Jess almost agreed with Simmons that is was a fruitless effort, because Trish seemed to be one of the most popular tributes for the feed to focus on. But it was the first time she had seen her since the last rebellion wide meeting. 

Trish looked less nervous than Jessica felt, but she was good at hiding that type of thing. Jess' opinions had switched again and she now had faith in the rebellion, which was far less Hogarth's then it seemed the last time Jess saw an arena loading room. 

"Whoa!" Daisy yelled.

"What?" Jess demanded turning toward her.

Daisy stood up slowly from the computer screen. "I had it for a second, then it kicked me out and now half the feeds are gone."

"They haven't shown Katniss for about two minutes now," Luke stated, peering at the screen.

Jess peered anxiously at the screen. "Something must have happened," she thought allowed. 

"Seems so," Daisy added looking over Simmons shoulder at the screen. 

"We have a message from the Capital team to move," Simmons told the room.

The entire team looked at Jessica. She peered desperately at the image of Trish as she stepped into her loading tube. 

"Shut everyone down," Jessica instructed. "Start clearing out."

"Where we headed?" Luke asked.

"The Capital base," Jessica told him.

 _I can do this. Everything is fine. It will all be over soon_ , Trish repeated in her head as she started raising in her tube. She tugged at her black leg brace to ensure herself for the tenth time that is was secure over her wet suit.

Her platform reached the surface and she squinted away from the blinding sun. Once her eyes adjusted, she realized she was surrounded by water. There were a handful of rock formations leading to the half of the cornucopia she could see.

She quickly scanned the faces. She recognized the two tributes from 6 on either side of her. She saw Johanna further down and thought Finnick was on the last platform she could see. She inhaled anxiously, realizing Katniss must be on the other side, while the majority of the people Trish knew were sworn to protect her weren't. 

The buzzer went off and Trish dove off her platform toward the rock formation. The salt water was burning her eyes but she tried to keep them open, too afraid of what might happen if she couldn't see for too long. She reached the edge of the rock formation, pulled herself up and sprinted toward the center.

It was her job to get a large knife for herself, a handful of daggers and a backpack. Everyone had also been told to pick up a bow and arrow if one was still left. Everyone knew Katniss having a bow greatly increased their chances. 

Trish heard something in the water to her right. She screamed as she tried to jump away but the guy from 1 yanked her legs out from underneath her. She tried to steady herself but it was no use, he held on too long.

She screamed again as she left knee collided painfully with the rock formation. She fell head first into the water. With the intense pain in her leg and the disorientation of falling into water, Trish struggled to hold her breath as she tried to turn herself around. 

When she nearly had a man's arm plunged into the water, reaching for her. She tried to push him up but he collided with something that pulled him up and them dropped him into the water beside her. As the water started to turn red with blood, another hand reached down and pulled her up by the arm. Trish was too shocked to be suspicious. 

She took a long breath of air and was revealed her shocked had worked in her favor.

"Thank you," she told Johanna. 

The older girl shrugged, holding a bloody ax. "You better be able to walk."

Trish carefully stood on the slick rocks. She put some weight on her left leg. It hurt but not as much as she was excepting. "I'm good," Trish said as they started toward the center.

"Good. Collect your shit quickly. We need to go find her," Johanna instructed forcefully.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish and Johanna find Katniss in the arena and the three of them team up.

Trish lagged slightly behind Johanna as they ran around the wet rocky ground surrounding the cornucopia. They both slowed for a moment as they peered at the other side confused by the fact that it was a mirror image of their side. 

Johanna took off again and Trish realized she was headed for the three people ready to fight at this opening. 

Johanna threw her ax over Katniss' shoulder hitting the guy approaching her from the left as Katniss fired an arrow at the girl heading straight at her. The arrow pierced the girl in the chest and Katniss quickly spawn around.

"No!" Trish yelled as she lunged at Johanna's back and forced her to the ground. 

Katniss' arrow whizzed over their heads. 

"Shit!" Johanna exclaimed as Trish climbed off her. 

"Sorry," Trish replied. 

As she started to get up, she looked over at Katniss, who was frozen holding her bow at her side, looking shocked and dumbfounded at what she had almost done. 

Trish was about to say something when she saw Johanna stand and take a few steps toward her. She didn't say anything and neither did Katniss but after a moment Trish saw her give a small nod. 

"We should check this side and then keep moving," Johanna instructed as she placed her foot on the dead victor-tribute's chest and yanked her ax out. 

"Everything good is gone," Katniss stated quietly. 

"I'm taking anything else I can carry," Trish declared, patting Katniss on the shoulder as she past her. "Just so no one else does."

"You guys didn't do so well at inspiring solidarity," Johanna snarked as she dipped her ax into the water and tried to wipe the blood off. 

"Us?" Trish asked with faux offense as she strapped a dagger around her thigh and clipped another small knife to the belt of her largest one. 

"You are everyone's favorite," Johanna pointed out.

"Katniss is," Trish corrected.

Katniss groaned annoyed. Johanna smirked at her. 

Trish shook her head at them as she pulled her bow across her chest. She unsheathed her largest knife. 

"Let's go?" she asked.

The three of them headed down the nearest stone path and onto the beach. Johanna and Trish went first slashing through the dense topical rainforest with their ax and knife. Katniss was walking cautiously behind them with an arrow ready in her bow, scanning the forest. 

"Guess we're even," Johanna told Trish.

"Huh?" Trish asked as she cut through the thick vines and abnormally large leaves in their path. 

"I saved you, you saved me," Johanna clarified.

Trish smiled and laughed lightly. "Were we keeping score?"

Johanna groaned and rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to say thank you."

"You could have just said that," Trish replied amused at her frustration.

"Why did I agree to team with you?" Johanna questioned.

Trish grinned. "Your thing for District 12 girls?" she asked as they both slashed the vegetation in front of them. 

They tripped a trap and all three of them went flying up into air, entangled in rope nets. As their's hung heavily from the tree branches, about six more swung aimless trapping nothing. 

"Fuck," Johanna called out as she twisted herself into more of a sitting position and peered at her ax on the ground below her. 

"What was that?" Kantiss inquired at the low growling noise coming from somewhere within the trees below them.

She nervously reached over her shoulder to pull out an arrow from her quiver. She haphazardly reached for her bow, figuring it would be tangled in the rope net with her. She glanced at the ground as spotted in laying in the mud beside Trish's knife. 

"Probably mutts of some kind," Trish stated quickly. She was frantically cutting the vine-like ropes of her net with her thigh dagger. 

"Mutts?" Katniss asked sounding scared. 

Johanna peered over at Katniss. She tried to meet her eyes but she could barely see her face through the mess of vines. 

"It'll be fine," Johanna stated firmly. 

Katniss almost believed her until they heard a savage bark and growl below them. A pack of some kind of wolf-panther hybrids were jumping at them and attempting to bite them. Luckily, the three of them were about two feet higher than the mutts could jump. 

"Oh god," Trish exhaled nervously, as she continued cutting a hole in her rope net. 

"Cut me down first," Johanna told her. "I'll start killing these fuckers."

"As I get Katniss down," Trish replied with a nod.

"Cut me down first," Katniss protested. "A bow will be--" 

"No," Johanna stated, peering over at her. Johanna had meant for it to just sound mean but she could tell by the way Katniss was looking at her, her worry had shown through. 

Trish ripped a hole large enough for her to fall through. She landed on the muddy ground awkwardly on her right side and scrambled to her feet. She shoved one of the wolf mutts away and stabbed another with her thigh dagger. She frantically grabbed her knife off the ground and threw it up at one of the two vines connecting Johanna's net to a tree.

"Whoa!" Johanna called out as half her net fell away and spilled her onto the ground.

Before she hit the mud, Trish was sprinting over to the tree supporting one side of Katniss' net. Katniss anxiously watched Johanna rip apart the mutts with her ax as Trish scaled the tree and reached the support vine. She quickly cut threw it and Katniss landed ungracefully on the ground beside her bow. She seized it and took out two mutts before Trish reached the ground again and repeated stabbed one until it collapsed beside her. 

Johanna spun and swung her ax at an approaching mutt. 

"Oh fuck, gross," Johanna called out as her ax went almost all the way through it and covered her in unnaturally bright-colored blood. 

She flung it to the ground and force it off with her foot. 

It seemed like all the mutts were dead for a moment. Then they heard another low growl and another pack came running out of the trees.

"The fuck!" Johanna yelled. 

"Run!" Trish shouted. "The water!"

Though she was the first to start running, Johanna and Katniss quickly past her. Even without being slammed against rocks earlier, her injured left leg hadn't allowed her to fully reach her old running speed. 

She pushed herself as hard as she could despite the intense pain in her leg.

Katniss yelled as one of the wolf mutts seems to come from a different section of the trees and tried to bite her as she reached the sand. The wolf slammed into some kind of invisible force field between the forest and the beach, yelped like it was injured and ran away.

"What?" Johanna exclaimed as she appeared at Katniss' side, having witnessed the whole ordeal.

"They can't reach the sand," Katniss yelled to Trish, who was still about 15 feet behind them. 

"Haul ass and jump, Patsy!" Johanna yelled. 

Trish sprinted until she felt a wolf mutt nip at her heel. Then she dove toward the forest-sand line. Johanna and Katniss both stepped over the line a bit and yanked her across. All three of them fell forcefully onto the sand. 

Trish was panting heavily between them as they watched most of the wolves collide with the force field and then scurry back into the forest.

"What the fuck is this arena?" Johanna inquired.

"Terrifying," Trish answered as Katniss shook her head in anger.

Katniss and Johanna stood and then pulled Trish to her feet. 

"We need to find water and some food," Katniss stated.

"Let me have all the backpacks," Trish instructed. "All these trees have to have water in them. Maybe there is a spickit in one of the bags."

Katniss peered at her a bit confused and Johanna raised an eyebrow.

Trish shook her head. "You fighter types always skip the plant identification station."

Johanna rolled her eyes and handed her backpack to Trish. Katniss did the same. She then wandered toward the water and nearly collapsed as she sat on the sand with her arms crossed over her bent knees. 

Trish slumped beside a tree on the safe side of the forest-beach line. She started rummaging through the backpacks. Her face lite up when she pulled out a lumpy grey bag. She tossed it at Johanna, who was still standing beside her.

She caught it annoyed, pulled at the drawstring opening and glanced inside. 

"I'm no good at fishing," Johanna informed her.

"No, but I think you would rather be talking to the girl sitting beside the water than with me," Trish stated with a wide smile on her face.

Johanna groaned, annoyed that Trish was able to read her so easily. 

Johanna sat herself beside Kantiss in the sand, opened the bag, assembled the tiny fishing pool, threaded it with fishing line, added a hook and bait and cast it into the water before the younger girl even acknowledged her. 

"Whatever plan she has it isn't going to work," Katniss said simply. 

Johanna peered over at her confused and a little anxious that Katniss already thought there was a plan.

_Patsy isn't that bad of an actress_

"Yeah?" Johanna shot back discouragingly. "What plan is that?" 

"Trish is too nice. She'll try to save everyone," Katniss said with a hint of anger.

"You wouldn't?" Johanna asked raising an eyebrow at her.

"Of course, I'd like to," the younger girl replied. "But after a while you have to be realistic and choose the people that matter."

Katniss glanced at her for no more than a second before turning her gaze back at the water. Johanna smirked to herself. 

"I feel the same," Johanna replied dipping her head at her. 

Katniss turned to look at her. Their eyes met and Kantiss felt the same level of safety and excitement as she did back at the cornucopia after she had almost accidentally murdered her. Johanna weakly smiled at her. She wanted to kiss her but she knew they were being filmed and everyone still thought she was in love with the dope she was engaged to. 

"I saved you because I wanted to," Johanna admitted seriously. "It wasn't a part of anyone else's plan."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss, Johanna and Trish meet more allies in the arena as the outside team does their best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I watched Catching Fire tonight to try to improve this fic and I guess I realized more and more, how much I actually like Katniss and Peeta. I guess this is me apologizing if the Joniss stuff sucks. I got so many requests, I decide to include it but it was never a real ship of mine. But, I do hope I am doing at least OK with it.

Katniss awoke with a scream that had carried over from the nightmare she was having about Cinna. Maybe it wasn't a nightmare and just a memory. The whole thing felt like a nightmare as she watched him be beat probably to death from inside a glass tube. 

Johanna perked up from her guard position at the base of the nearest tree and held her ax at the ready. Trish sleepily jolted up.

"What?" Johanna questioned her.

"Nothing," Katniss grumbled. "Nightmare."

Trish aimlessly nodded, laid back down and was asleep instantly. 

Katniss stood and brushed the sand off her arm. They had made beds of leaves and a tarp about as close as they could safely get to the beach-forest line. They had been sleeping in shifts. Katniss held the first watch, Trish had the second and Johanna was currently in the third.

"What is going on with you?" Johanna questioned. "You are more weepy than usual."

She scoffed. "I'm not weepy," she declared as she sat beside her and also leaned back against the tree. 

"Usually you aren't," Johanna jabbed. She instant felt bad as Katniss hung her head and looked like she wanted to either cry or tell her something. "Did something happen?"

Katniss gazed over at her but Johanna couldn't read her expression. 

Johanna snickered and shook her head as she looked away from her. "You don't want to tell me."

"No," Katniss told her as she reached out and placed her hand on the back of Johanna's neck. She slowly ran it around to her chest until Johanna gazed at her intensely. Katniss nervously snapped her hand away.

Johanna bit her lower lip, getting more frustrated with her. 

"I can't," Katniss informed her. "Not yet. It isn't safe."

"The world isn't safe, Katniss," Johanna replied slowly as she peered over at her.

Katniss met her eyes and Johanna watched the sadness and fear wash over her face. It was much more intense than she ever looked outside the arena. Johanna knew whatever she wasn't telling her had to be something big. 

Katniss started leaning into her with a look of downcast desperation. When her lips met hers, she knew it was nothing more than needing comfort. Johanna kissed her back with the same slow tenderness as Katniss. Johanna could feel that something was bothering her. But fuck they were kissing again. So it wasn't like Johanna was going to stop her and ask. 

Johanna wasn't sure how long they could have kept going, possibly until morning but screaming down the beach distracted them and they longingly pulled apart. The scream also woke Trish, who nearly instantly began packing up the supplies. 

Johanna quickly stood and peered down the beach. 

"That sounded like Finnick," she stated mostly to Trish. 

She nodded. "It did," she replied. She had spent enough time screaming beside him on movie sets to know what his sounded like. "I'm certain it is."

"Do we need more allies?" Katniss hissed with a hint of confusion.

"Not sure we have a choice," Johanna told her as Trish went running down the beach toward him.

Two others stumbled across the forest-beach line with him. All three looked exhausted, weak and were covered in blood.

"Finnick!" Trish called as she reached him.

"Trish," he panted as she hugged him and he hugged her back. "I barely got them out." 

"Where's Mags?" Trish asked as she pulled away from Finnick. Johanna reached them and Finnick hugged her still breathing heavily. 

"She didn't make it," he admitted over Johanna's shoulder. "I tried, but we were..all choking on the blood and...I couldn't do it." He paused and struggled to hold his tears in his eyes. 

Johanna hugged him tighter but couldn't think of anything to say. 

"You did everything you could," Trish told him as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "She'd be proud of you."

Finnick weakly nodded.

"Tick tock," Wiress stated as she wandered toward them. 

"What do you mean?" Trish asked her as she steadied her as she stumbled in the sand.

"She just keeps saying that," Finnick announced as he pulled away from Johanna. 

"She's in shock," Beetee added. He was kneeling in the water and cleaning the blood off himself.

"Come on, Wiress," Katniss said as she walked around Trish and took Wiress' arm. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Trish gave Katniss a nod of encouragement as she pulled Wiress into the water.

"You too, pretty boy," Johanna stated as she shoved him into the water.

"I'll get fresh water for everyone," Trish stated and she walked to the nearest tree.

Katniss lead Wiress into the water, had her squat before her and started washing the blood out off her shoulders and out of her hair. 

She heard others approach and assumed Johanna and Finnick were doing then same behind her. 

"I don't need your help, Johanna," Finnick declared as he pushed her away in the waist-deep water. 

"You are seriously, literally pushing me away right now?" Johanna shot back. 

"Would you just leave me alone?" he shouted at her. 

"Tick tock!" Wiress said loudly.

"You want to be left alone?" Johanna questioned angrily. 

"No. I don't know. I just don't want to be babied or mothered," he yelled at her. 

"Tick tock!" Wiress shouted again. 

"Yeah, tick tock," Katniss replied quietly as she poured more water over the blood in her hair. 

"Great," Johanna yelled slamming her hands into the water. "Then you are going to have to deal with me. Because your only fucking other option right now is Patsy. And how do you think that would go?" 

"Probably better than this," Finnick stated as he took a step told Johanna and shoved her.

"Tick tock!" Wiress shouted.

"Will you shut up?" Johanna screamed at her.

"Lay off, Johanna," Kantiss yelled at her.

"Tick tock!"

"What good is she doing?" Johanna yelled.

"Not everything has to be a part of the 'save the faces' plan," Finnick shouted, angrily pointing at Katniss.

"What?" Katniss blurted. 

"Stop it! Stop it all of you," Trish yelled as she ran into the water and pushed Johanna and Finnick away from each other. "What is wrong with you two? You have been friends for longer then I have known either of you."

The two older victor-tributes panted as they angrily looked away from her.

"I know the two of you are angry," Trish admitted to them. "I've been in your position before, thinking the Games took everything from me."

Johanna and Finnick both looked guiltily at the water.

"Tick tock!"

"But you can't let it defeat you. You can't let it make you give up or turn against your friends," Trish told them. "So apologize, because this entire fight is stupid. Especially right now."

"Tick tock?" Kantiss repeated confused. 

Finnick took a step told Johanna and clasped her in a hug. She hugged him back.

"This count?" he asked.

"I'm tempted to pull the Annie card,"' Johanna replied with a smirk.

He scoffed. "Fine," he replied, knowing his girlfriend would want the literal response. "I apologize."

"Tick tock!" Wiress shouted. 

"Good," Johanna replied. "I apologize too."

Finnick raised an eye at her. 

"What? I don't want her mad at me either," Johanna replied. 

"Tick tock," Katniss stated with a sense of understanding. "Wiress, you are a genius," Katniss declared as she cupped her face in her hands. "The arena is a clock," she told the others.

"Fuck, yes! I knew they would figure it out," Jessica declared to the room of rebel leaders and District 12 mentors, who were watching the footage projected on the wall.

Apparently it was much easier to move the mentor viewing room off site than Jessica thought it would be. Hogarth had it moved to the District 12 penthouse of the tribute center instead of the mentor tower down the street. 

The tribute center was less guarded and much easier for Jessica and the rest of her gifted team to break into. 

"Kantiss figured it out," Peeta pointed out.

"Jeri," Pam said as she peered around the door frame into the room. "I need to speak with you."

"Keep watch," Hogarth instructed Jessica and Peeta, the only two standing at the back of the room and not seated on the couches close to the TVs. 

"It ain't a contest, dough boy," Jessica replied. "Them knowing is all I care about." 

"Yeah, me too," Peeta replied, ignoring her insult. "Who said it was?" 

"Snow," Jessica shot back.

"I guess you're right," he replied. "How'd you do it?" 

"Do what?" Jessica asked.

"Keep you and her, Trish, alive?" Peeta questioned.

 _Fuck this kid loves her_ ,Jess thought.

"My plan from the start was to fake my own death and keep Trish alive," Jess told him. "I know this plan seems far fetched and crazy, but I think it'll work. We aren't going to let Katniss die in there because we aren't going to let anyone die in there. I know it might start to look bad, but just remember nobody is dying under my watch."


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica and Hogarth have a dispute over who they can trust as Trish and Johanna make their best case for trustworthiness in the arena.

Finnick lead the group to the cornucopia so they would be out of sight.

"It's a clock?" he asked.

"Tick tock," Wiress said again.

Kantiss nodded at her. "Yes," she replied as she took Johanna's knife from her hand and used it to draw a circle in the dirt.

"Each slice is a different hour," Trish stated as she knelt beside the drawing. "You guys we're in the blood rain," Trish began.

"Tick tock," Wiress continued to murmur to herself.

"As we were with the panther mutts," Katniss finished as she wrote in each of the slices.

"The section beside us flooded when you guys were asleep,” Johanna added.

"When was that?" Beetee asked. "I'm almost certain that large tree is hit by lightning everyone 12 hours."

Johanna shrugged. "One, two hours later."

"Is this bad?" Jessica asked Hogarth in the off-site District 12 viewing room. "The game makers aren't going to like them figuring out the arena."

"Plutarch is on our side," Hogarth answered though she sounded rather uncertain.

"Yeah, who said that?" Jess questioned.

"That is really not the issue, Jessica," Hogarth shot back.

"So it's someone I wouldn't trust?" she replied.

"It got the word from Cressida, but she isn't the only one to say so," Hogarth told her.

"So we are trusting a fucking game marker on the word of a Capital director, who might only be helping us because of her lady boner for Trish?" Jessica hissed at her annoyed.

Hogarth shook her head as she took a drink of whiskey. "This is why I didn't tell you."

"I don't think we should trust this guy," Jess told Hogarth as she watched the victor-tributes assign threats to each section of their arena clock map.

"I don't find him fully trustworthy either, but he is helping. Although, he had appearances to upkeep and might seem against us at times," Hogarth stated.

"So, we can't even fucking trust our allies?" Jessica asked.

"Tick tock?" Trish said on the video screen in front of them. "Why is Wiress so quiet?"

"No!" Beetee yelled as he saw Brutus from 2 with a knife at her neck.

Finnick held him back from charging at him as Katniss shot an arrow. It pierced him in the shoulder but he had enough strength to still slit her throat.

"No!" Beetee shouted again as Trish charged at Brutus.

The cornucopia started to spin and nobody reached their anger-fueled destinations. Trish slid down the rocky surface toward the water. She was able to pull out her thigh dagger and stab it into the ground. It luckily caught a crack between two rock formations and kept her from flying into the water. She held onto the hilt with all her strength.

Katniss was attempting to do the same a few feet away. But she had only caught her hand in between the rock formations. Johanna screamed as she slammed her ax into the rocks as she flew toward the water. Her ax caught on something and she reached for Katniss.

"Take me hand!" She yelled over the noise of the spinning cornucopia and the spraying water.

Katniss stretched to reach her with her left hand, though her right was closer.

"Other hand, idiot," Johanna yelled.

Katniss shook her head.

"You're not gonna fall," Johanna yelled.

"Fine," Katniss yelled as she lunged for Johanna's hand with her right and reached her.

Johanna grabbed it securely and held it tightly, ensuring she would not fall into the water that was spinning rapidly below them.

“Where’s Trish?” Jessica frantically asked Hogarth as the footage from the arena cut between Johanna and Katniss, Beetee and Finnick and Brutus struggling to the beach but hadn’t shown Trish. 

Hogarth peered at the screen anxiously. 

Jessica hit her ear pierce. “Daisy, Simmons, come in,” Jessica said to tech-savvy recruits who were in another secret Capital location. 

“Yes, ma’am?” Simmons replied. 

“You guys got the video feeds?” Jessica asked. 

“Daisy's almost got all of them up and running,” Simmons told her as she watched Daisy quickly type something into one of the multiple screens in their tech room. 

“We need a visual on--,” Jess began. 

“Trish, we know,” Simmons stated. 

“Got it!” Daisy yelled. 

“There,” Daisy said as she pointed at a 12 icon the screen in front of her and Simmons. 

Simmons hit a key on her key broad. “I’ve sent the screen to you,” she said. “Trish is the 12 icon off by herself.” 

Jessica sighed in relief when she saw their screen taking up the bottom left corner of theirs. Trish’s 12 icon was still spinning around on the edge of the cornucopia. 

“This is the game maker view,” Hogarth said astounded as she took a step toward the projection. 

“That a problem?” Jessica asked. 

“No,” Hogarth said, shaking her head with a smile. “I underestimated your recruits.” 

“Big fucking surprise there,” Jessica replied. 

“Jessica!” Peeta stated anxiously as he hit her on the arm and directed her attention to the game maker view screen. Trish’s 12 icon flew off the cornucopia and into the water. 

About three seconds later it stopped spinning.

“Shit, come on,” Jess yelled at the screen. “Come on.” 

“Trish!” Beetee yelled into the water, off the side of the cornucopia. 

The murky water was even worse with the foam from the spinning. 

“Where did she go in?” Finnick asked as he reached Beetee’s side. 

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Everything was happening too rapidly.” 

“Where’s Trish?” Johanna questioned as she reached them. Katniss was trailing behind her, but not far since she had yet to release the older girl’s hand. 

A cannon went off. 

The people on the rocks looked at each other with such concern they all jumped when someone reached the surface of the water and gasped loudly for breathe. Finnick was diving into the water before the others had enough time to realize it was Trish. 

Johanna and Katniss helped pull her onto the rocks after Finnick swam over with her. She continued to cough up water and pant heavily. 

“Brutus?” Finnick asked. 

Trish nodded between coughs. “I don’t know. I at least injured him.”

Finnick nodded as he pulled himself out of the water and helped Trish to her feet. 

“Let’s get off this spinning death trap, shall we?” she asked. 

Everyone nodded in agreement and they headed for the beach. 

Beetee was muttering to himself and quickly trying to redraw the clock map in the sand with a knife. “What section are we currently in?” he asked. 

Finnick peered at the trees. “No idea,” he replied. 

“That is probably a bad sign in this fucking place,” Johanna added. 

A scream echoed out of the woods. Most of them found it only mildly familiar but Katniss perked up and instantly panicked. 

“Prim!” she yelled as she started running for the trees. 

“Katniss, it isn’t real,” Johanna told her as she jumped in front of her. Katniss shoved her aside and went frantically running to the trees. 

Trish ran over and helped Johanna up. 

“Jabberjays?” Johanna asked. 

Trish nodded. “We should go get her before she runs into something more dangerous.” 

Another scream rang out from the forest. Johanna shook and Trish tensed up. They both looked to Finnick and saw the wild concern washing over his face. 

“It isn’t her, Finnick,” Trish pleaded with him as she grabbed his shoulders and tried to hold him back. 

The scream rang out again and he forcefully shoved her away. She stumbled back and Johanna caught her before she hit the ground. 

“Thanks,” she told her. 

“No problem,” she replied as she anxiously stared at the forest. “It seems like this super fun obstacle will skip me. I have nobody left that I love.” 

Trish assumed that was what was happening and stared anxiously at the trees, awaiting Jessica’s scream. When it didn’t came she had to stop herself from smiling. It meant the Capital didn’t know she was still alive and one person it had to use against her was safe. Johanna peered over at her when she was in the middle of not smiling. She raised her eyebrows, indicating she had made the same connection as she gave her a weak nod. 

“I guess, none of us do,” Beetee stated. 

“Go after Katniss,” Trish instructed Johanna. “I’ll get Finnick.”

She nodded and both of them sprinted into the trees. 

After a few moments of sprinting, Trish noticed a shimming in front of Johanna. 

“No! Stop,” Trish yelled. 

But, it was too late. She collided with the force field and was thrown back a few feet. 

“Johanna! Johanna!” Trish yelled as she reached her side. 

She had the breath knocked out of her and was gasping violently. 

“Relax,” Trish instructed. “Just relax,” she told her as she held her down by her shoulders. 

She gazed up at her like she might murder her for a moment, but she regained her breathe. 

“Thanks,” Johanna said as Trish pulled her to her feet. 

They both made their way, slowly and cautiously to the force field. Johanna started banging on it to get Katniss’ attention, when it started to work Trish did the same for Finnick. 

“It’s OK. You’re OK. She’s isn’t here. She is safe,” Trish yelled to Finnick, unsure if he could even hear her. 

Johanna was just desperately waiting for Katniss to make eye contact with her. She finally did when she nearly jumped at the force field as she collapsed, covering her ears and screaming in distress. 

“Are we certain Katniss’ family is OK?” Hogarth asked the room of rebels and the few tuning in from a video screen from other locations. 

Luke nodded. “There are rebels keeping tabs on them. People I can trust.” 

“And Annie?” Jessica asked. 

“I…I’m fine,” Annie nervously declared over the joint feed. 

“She contacted us a few minutes ago,” Daisy told Jessica through their private ear piece. “I thought it best to patch it through to everyone.” 

“Glad to hear it, Miss Cresta,” Hogarth stated. 

“Good work, Daisy,” Jessica replied. “Annie, do you know what those screams are from?” 

“M-my games,” she stated nervously. “I don’t know about Primrose’s though.” 

“It could be from Katniss’ first reaping footage,” Simmons stated over the joint feed. 

“Let me find the footage,” Daisy stated. 

Hogarth peered at Jessica with a proud expression. They both gazed up at the live footage as Trish and Johanna pleaded with Finnick and Katniss to calm down. 

Jessica heard muffled screaming from the other end of her ear piece. 

“It’s certainly from Katniss’ reaping,” Daisy told her. 

“Good work,” Jessica grumbled into her ear piece. She tapped it to mute herself. “They found it. Prim’s screams are from Katniss’ reaping,” she told her former mentor.  
Hogarth nodded pleased. 

“Katniss!” Johanna tried to yell through the force field. 

There was a thunder clap. Beetee and Trish looked up into the crystal clear blue sky. They met eyes with each other. 

“Well, that certainly doesn’t make sense,” he stated. 

Trish nodded. 

“Whoa! Hey, Katniss,” Johanna called as the force field between them disappeared. “It’s OK. It’ jabberjays. Your sister is safe.” 

Katniss cried out as she threw her arms around Johanna, who held her tightly. 

“Everything is fine,” Johanna told her. “You’re safe now,” as she held Katniss who continued to cry into her shoulder. 

“Finnick?” Trish called as she knelt in front of him. He was a few feet past the force field line. She placed her hands on his shoulders, but when he didn’t react she moved one hand to his face. He still barely reacted. 

“I’m fine,” he replied catatonically. 

“She’s OK,” Trish told him. She had no real proof, but she believed Jessica and the rest of the revolution would be keeping everyone safe. 

“Yeah, sure” he blankly replied. 

She forcefully squeezed his shoulder and held his attention. “Look, I know how hard this can all be,” Trish began as she peered directly into his eyes. “And I know some…work colleague telling you everything is going to be all right sounds stupid. But you have to believe me. I know the truth and that your future is waiting for you outside this arena.” 

“Am I going to have to kill you to get to it?” Finnick asked with a weak cheeky smile. 

“Maybe,” Trish replied. “But I hope you find another way.” 

“Yeah me too,” Finnick added.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss starts to doubt the others in the arena, as the revolution nears the extraction plan.

"The careers are our main problem now," Beetee stated as the five of them followed the forest-beach line to the section with the lightening tree. 

"Careers?" Katniss asked. "Isn't there only one left?"

"I didn't get a good look at the person I stabbed under the water," Trish stated. "It might not have been Brutus."

"Regardless there are three others left," Finnick added.

"Let's call them careers for simplicity sake," Beetee clarified.

"Who cares what we call them?" Johanna hissed annoyed. "How are we going to kill them?" 

She figured this plan of Beetee's had to be related to the extraction plan.

"Electricity," he said with a smile as he held up the coil of wire he was carrying. 

Johanna huffed annoyed that he wouldn't just get on with it. Katniss met her eyes, looking just as annoyed. 

"We can run the wire from the tree to the water," Beetee explained as they reached the section and started walking into the forest. Finnick was leading them, slashing a path. The other three were scanning the forest and holding their weapons at the ready. 

"When it is struck by lightening, anyone in the water, on the beach or not on dry land ground will be electrocuted," Beetee continued.

Trish nearly whipped her head to gaze at him but stopped herself and stared intensely into the trees as she tried to think of a good question. This had to be part of the extraction plan. 

Finnick tossed a rock at the force field to their right. "Any chance that could blow the power to this place?" he asked with a light, joking tone.

"It is unluckily we are that lucky," Beetee stated.

Trish smiled to herself. Hopefully the camera all around them thought it was because of the joke.

"So midnight then?" Trish asked. "When the lightening strikes?"

"Hopefully it works," Finnick added.

"It will," Beetee replied.

"It fucking better," Johanna hissed. 

"What are we going to do until then?" Katniss asked since the sun was barely setting.

"Not die," Johanna shrugged.

Jessica took a deep breath as she leaned against the ledge of the balcony on the tribute center and watched the sun set over the Capital. She heard the door slide open behind her but she also heard high heels click against the stone floor. She didn't need to turn around to know who is was.

"Is your team ready?" Hogarth asked standing with one hand on her hip behind Jessica.

Jess squinted at the slightly run down building about a block away. One wall was nearly covered in a piling _Together We Fight_ poster.

"They're ready," Jess replied.

"Are you certain?" Hogarth inquired as she stepped closer to her.

Jess hung her head and groaned to herself. "What difference does it make? We couldn't get more time even if we needed it."

Hogarth reached her side and stood stiffly as she peered at the setting sun. "We could bring in some of the others."

Jessica peered over at the piling poster and stared at the stern blood strained face of Patsy Walker. She bit her lip to calm her rapidly rising nerves. 

"No. Luke would be the only one I want," Jessica stated. 

Hogarth nodded.

Jessica had hated the idea at first but she then understood Hogarth's reason for sending Luke and Peeta back to District 12. The plan was to head to the 12 base, which was just the basement of Luke's Bar, after the extraction. After some convincing Jess agreed it would be better to have people already there to prepare. 

"Your friend Plutarch going to show?" Jessica questioned. "This whole plan is useless without his hovercraft."

"When the time comes, he'll be here," Hogarth stated.

"And if he doesn't?" Jessica asked, trying to sound angry but it just came out nervous.

Hogarth smirked. "Wait to kill me until after I've killed him."

Jessica scoffed.

"Can I talk to you?" Katniss asked Johanna as she walked up to her and Trish, who were filling everyone's canteens with water using a nearby tree. 

"Uh," Johanna sputtered anxiously with a glance toward Trish.

She grabbed three of the canteens. "I'll go give these to Finnick and Beetee," Trish told them with an awkward smile as she headed for Beetee, who was wrapping wire around the lightening tree.

Katniss didn't say anything and sat beside Johanna at the base of the tree. They met eyes and Johanna raised an eyebrow at the look of confusion and contemplation on Katniss' face.

"We should go," Katniss stated with a scared look.

Johanna took deep breath. "You don't trust them."

Katniss shook her head. "I only trust you."

Johanna motioned for Katniss to move closer. She got as close as she could and Johanna put her arm around her shoulder. 

Katniss was so much closer to her now and the look of confusion and fear in her eyes pained Johanna even more. For a moment she was wanted to fuck all of it and tell Katniss that she could trust everyone they were with. They had all swore to keep her safe.

"You don't even trust Patsy?" Johanna asked with a desperate tone, wishing she could tell her about the time Trish declared to the entire revolution that she wanted to be seen as an afterthought to saving Katniss.

"Maybe, I don't know," Katniss stated. "But could you kill her or Finnick?" 

Johanna looked up and away from Katniss and sighed. It seemed like her only choice were to tell her everything or go along with it. She looked back at the Girl on Fire and gave into her nearly overwhelming urge to kiss her. It was quick. They both seemed too afraid.

"If shit goes south after midnight, we'll leave," Johanna lied.

After the screeching and rustling stopped in the section beside them, they assumed it was nearly midnight and they should start lying out the wire.

Trish and Finnick stayed at the tree to guard Beetee as Katniss and Johanna were tasked with running the coil of wire to the water. They walked in silence and made it about a third of the way until Katniss abruptly stopped.

Katniss yanked on the wire and it snapped. Johanna sensed someone behind them and had just enough time to fling a knife at the crazy chick with the fangs from 2 as she threw a spear at them. 

Johanna slammed Katniss to the ground and laid on top of her.

"Shut up. Shut up," Johanna whispered as she covered Katniss' mouth with her hand. 

The crazy chick howled in pain and the first bolt of lightening hit the tree. There was a distant scream and a thud and then someone nearby running away.

Johanna pushed herself up slightly, pulled a knife from her belt and felt for the lump in Katniss' arm. She found it and cut below it with the knife.

Katniss lowly grunted as she looked up at her with a hint of betrayal. "What are you doing?"

"Protecting you, you idiot," Johanna admitted. "All of this had been about protecting you."

Johanna leaned down and kissed her with a desperate sadness. She felt the same on Katniss' lips as she pulled away.

"I'm really sorry I have to do this," Johanna apologized as she slammed the hilt of her knife against Katniss' temple hard enough to knock her out.

She pulled the tracker from her arm, placed it on the ground and smashed it with a rock. She covered her hands in blood from Katniss' arm and smeared it over her neck.

Against all her instincts and wants, Johanna then left Katniss alone on the ground and sprinted for the tree. The sky will still lite with an unnatural bluish darkness and the storm was still raging, so Beetee's plan to blow the power must have failed.

The storm got louder the closer Johanna got to the tree. 

"Where's Beetee?" Johanna had to yell to Trish when she found her at the base of the tree.

"He was thrown back when the lightening hit," Trish explained as she continued to stab the ground with a stick with a knife on the end wrapped in wire.

"What are you doing?"

"Try to find the underground power lines," Trish huffed in defeat. "Beetee couldn't find them either."

"Finnick?" Johanna asked realizing he wasn't around.

Trish motioned to the trees to their right. "He went after the careers."

Johanna took a depth as it started to sink in how poorly everything was going.

"We were supposed to knock out the power so they could break through without getting hurt," Trish explained over the storm.

"And then what? Your girlfriend was just gonna punch her way through?" Johanna asked.

Trish shrugged. "Possibly," she replied as she stared at the ground, then the wire and then up at the sky. "The forcefield!" She called, nearly jumping with excitement. "We can blow it with the forcefield."

Trish quickly unwrapped the wire from the stake and re-wrapped it around an arrow.

"Can you reach it from here?" Johanna asked anxiously.

"We'll find out," Trish replied.

They both quickly turned at the sound of a scream the trees beside them. They didn't even need to say it. They both knew it was Finnick.

"I'll go help him," Johanna stated. "Get us the fuck out of here, Patsy."

Trish nodded as she loaded her bow, pointed the arrow at the sky and waited for the lightening. She nocked her arrow and hoped she could predict the lightening. As soon as she saw a streak start to come out of the artificial sky, she fired. 

She was just too late and was thrown back as the sound of the tree and the wire trailing her arrow filled the arena with buzzing and crackling. Trish landed hard on the ground about 10 feet away. She thought she heard an explosion or something crumbling apart.

She was barely able to open her eyes but she was twisted awkward toward the ground and could only see the dirt.

"We're in! Go," Trish thought she heard someone shout. Maybe it was Jessica. Or maybe she was hallucinating.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica and her team reach the arena and Trish, but Jess is forced to make a hard choice when the extraction doesn't go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter runs through the end of Catching Fire but don't worry. I'm going to keep this going through Mockingjay.

Hogarth stood anxiously with her hands on her hips, peering at the two screens before her. The one was playing the video footage from the Hunger Games broadcast and the other was the game maker view of number icons in the map of the arena. 

“How close are we?” Jessica asked through her earpiece as she stood nervously around the hatch down in the lower level of the craft with the rest of her team of Super Recruits, the groan-worthy name they had given themselves as a joke. 

“Not yet,” Hogarth said to everyone. “Trish is about to take out the force field.”

“The next lightning strike will be in 30 seconds,” Plutarch said. 

Jessica has been suspicious of how eager the head game maker had been to help them. But, Hogarth reassured her that he had been a higher up in the revolution since before the 73rd games. 

“Open the hatch when the arrow hits the force field,” Jessica instructed. She peered around at her seven-member team. “I’ll jump down to make sure we can get through. Don’t move until I tell you.” 

Pete and Kitty, her two most senior members, gave her confident nods. The other members were varying degrees of scared and Kurt, the newest member, was nearly shaking. 

“We got this,” Jessica said and then nearly groaned at herself. It was the best words of encouragement she could think of. 

Marie nearly laughed at her trying to be encouraging. 

Jess huffed. “Just fucking remember that Katniss is our priority. Get her to the craft as quickly as possible.”

“Then Trish?” Daisy stated. 

“Then Trish,” Jess repeated. 

They all stumbled slightly as the hovercraft shook. 

“The arrow hit,” Hogarth informed them. “Hatch is opening.” 

Jess was about to kick the thing opened. It felt like it was moving much too slowly. But it, the roof of the arena and about forty feet were all that was standing between her and Trish. She jumped down as soon as the hatch was fully opened. She landed beside the slowly crumbling hole in the roof of the arena. 

She hurried toward it, grabbed a piece without any buzzing blue wires, tore it off and threw it aside. She saw a flash of the darkened arena below her. 

“We’re in! Go,” she called to her team. 

She struggled to hold herself back to make sure her team all got in safely. Pete grabbed Kitty and Daisy’s hands and the three of them jumped down. Bobby shot down a slide of ice that he, Marie and Clarice went down. 

Jessica grabbed Kurt’s shoulder before he jumped down. “You go find Katniss. Don’t stop for anything else,” she told the boy. 

He nodded, jumped down, disappeared and reappeared closer to the ground. 

Jessica jumped in after him, hit the ground lightly and somersaulted to her feet and sprinted toward the tree, where she had last seen Trish. She saw the members of her team in few feet in front of her. 

“Johanna, Finnick and the careers are ahead of you to the right,” Simmons told them from her tech station back on the craft. 

“Pete, Kitty. Go,” Jess instructed them. 

They split off and headed into the dense trees to the right of the lightening tree.

“Take a hard left in about 10 feet and that will take you to our last position on Katniss,” Hogarth said. 

“Kurt,” Jessica stated. “Daisy, go with him.” 

“Now,” Hogarth called. 

The two split off. 

“Jessica, once you reach the tree Beetee is near the back left corner,” Hogarth told her. 

“Be careful moving him, he might have a spinal injury,” Simmons added. 

Jess jumped mid-stride at the sound of a large gate opening and spotlight blames spilling into the arena. 

“The fuck is that?” Jessica called. 

“It seems the arena guards have arrived,” Plutarch answered calmly. 

“Daisy, status,” Jess demanded. 

“Looking,” she replied. 

“I’ve found her!” Kurt yelled. 

“Get her back here,” Hogarth commanded. 

Jessica saw a flash of blue and black appear near the top of the tree and then just outside the arena. 

“We need help!” Pete yelled between grunts. 

“A shit ton of guards!” Kitty added. 

“Uh, me too,” Daisy said, as a small army was charging toward her. 

“Marie and Clarice, go help Daisy,” Jessica directed. 

“Kurt, get Beetee out,” Hogarth instructed. “Remove his tracker first. 

“Jessica, veer to the left and you’ll be at Trish’s position,” Simmons told her. 

She jolted forward, possibly faster than she had ever ran before. She saw Trish twisted awkwardly in the dirt and leaped forward, turned herself in the air and landing just in front her.

“Trish,” she said filled with anxiety as she knelt beside her and turned her onto her back. “Trish,” she repeated as she barely responded at her. 

Her eyes slowly slid open. She peered up at Jessica with a small smile and a weak laugh. 

“I knew it was you,” she muttered faintly. 

Jessica exhaled in relief and leaned down to quickly kiss her. For a short, yet wonderful moment she let herself forgot where they were and everything that was happening around them. Jessica reluctantly pulled away. She reached into her pocket. 

“Tracker,” Trish muttered as she turned her arm. 

Jess nodded. “Yeah,” she replied as she found it in Trish’s arm, cut it out, tossed it to the ground and smashed it with hilt of her knife. “Can you get up?” Jessica asked Trish with compassionate concern. 

“Maybe,” Trish said with a weak shrug. 

Jess smiled and shook her head slightly at her. Despite everything Trish was still being just as light-hearted as always and making Jess feel happier than she had since the last time they were together. 

Jess hooked her hands under Trish’s arms and pulled her to her feet. She didn’t call out in pain, like Jessica had expected but she nearly collapsed and Jessica caught her and held her tightly against her. 

“Sorry. Light-headed,” Trish said. 

“Hang onto me,” Jess instructed her. She had planned to have her hold onto her back, but that seemed implausible now. 

Trish wrapped her arms around Jessica and held on as tightly as she could. “Flying?” she asked with a smile. 

Jessica groaned at her, waited for Trish to laugh lightly and then grasp tighter before she jumped as high as she could. She landed rather ungracefully on the arena roof, much closer to the edge of the crumbling hole than she had anticipated. She carried Trish a few steps until they were under the hatch and then leaped the short distance up and into the lower level of the hovercraft. She gently laid Trish down on the mat beside an unconscious Katniss. 

Jessica panted heavily as she looked from Katniss to Trish, who smiled at her. 

“You did it,” Trish told her. 

Jess didn’t even have time to get off a snarky comment before frantic voices started coming through her earpiece. 

“How many of these fuckers are there?” Daisy called. 

“Maybe too many,” Kitty replied. 

“Shit!” Pete yelled. “Johanna is down!” 

Jess wildly jumped to her feet. “Down how?” she demanded. 

Trish yelped and sat up as Kurt appeared and started lying Beetee on the mat beside her. 

“I think he needs medical attention,” Kurt said to Jessica. 

“Sending down medical,” Hogarth replied. 

“Pete, Johanna?” Jessica asked forcefully. 

“I think she’s just injured,” he told her between grunts and punches. 

Jessica exhaled slowly and peered down on Trish with an intense feeling of dread and desperation. 

“Jess?” Trish asked meekly, though it seemed she knew what was happening. 

“I have to go back and help,” she admitted to her wretchedly.

Trish pressed her lips together and a tear escaped her eyes. Jessica knelt in front of her and gently placed her hands on her shoulders. 

“Why do I feel like you won’t come back?” Trish asked, her perception skills seeping through her sadness. 

Jess deflated and tried to look away. Trish reached out and placed her hand on the side of her face. Jessica took a nervous breath and met her girlfriend’s tearful eyes. 

“Getting you and Katniss out was the priority,” Jessica told her. 

Trish shook her head. “You can’t do this to me again,” she told her slowly. “Promise me this isn’t happening again.” 

Jessica shook her head. “I’m not dying, real or fake.”

Trish grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her into a loving and tense kiss before letting her back away. “Good,” she replied with teary, forcefulness. 

“Come on, Kurt,” Jessica demanded as she stepped toward the hatch. She met eyes with Trish, who smiled at her and she smiled back, before she jumped out of the craft and back into the arena. 

“Hogarth?” Jessica said once she reached the ground and started running toward the fight to the right of the tree. 

“Daisy, Marie and Clarice are fighting off about 10 guards,” she started to explain. “There might be 15 or 20 fighting with the others.” 

“Finnick and Johanna?” Jessica asked. 

“No location on Johanna,” Hogarth told her. 

“Jessica, I’ve got Finnick,” Kitty stated. “We’re heading toward the tree.” 

“Kitty, veer left and you’ll reach Jessica’s location,” Simmons told them. 

“Kurt is with me,” Jessica added. “Take them up when they reach you,” she instructed him. 

He nodded. 

Jessica sprinted toward the larger fight and passed Kitty and Finnick going the other direction. She heard a spray of gunfire and then the whoosh of Kurt disappearing. She quickly spun around and saw a Peacekeeper reloading his gun. Jessica charged at him. 

“The nearest squad of Peacekeepers just arrived,” Plutarch told everyone. 

“The fuckers have guns,” Daisy added.

Jessica tackled the Peacekeeper to the ground. She wrestled his gun away and slammed him in the head with the butt of it. 

“Kurt’s been hit,” Kitty said frantically.

“Where are you?” Jessica asked as she stood up from the possibly dead Peacekeeper. 

“Lower level of the craft,” she replied. 

Jessica stood still for a moment with her heads on her hand, trying to think of a solution. “We’ve got everyone but Johanna?” she asked. 

“Yes,” Hogarth replied. 

Jessica took a deep breathe. “Everyone retreat to the craft,” she commanded. 

“Jessica?” Hogarth asked uncertainly. 

“I’ll find Johanna and bring her back myself,” Jessica stated as she started running toward her location. “Everyone head back to the lightening tree and try to figure out a way to get up to the craft.” 

“I can build platforms,” Bobby suggested. 

“I can help fill in the gaps,” Clarice added. 

“Kitty, you good?” Pete asked. 

“Yeah, I’ll jump down and you can start throwing people with me,” she added. 

Jessica ran into the mass of arena guards and Peacekeepers and started fighting them off. She tossed a few guards away and threw one into a line of others to take them out. A couple Peacekeepers were charging at her but they were holding stun sticks inside of guns. She was happy for her advantage but confused by their choice. She started on taking them out.

Jessica flung one over her shoulder and got a glimpse of her team’s efforts back at the tree. Bobby was constructing some kind of staircase of jagged, giant ice shards that Clarice and Marie were climbing. Clarice was shooting portals to help them across the large gaps between them. Pete had turned his skin to metal and threw Daisy and Kitty up at the opening in the arena ceiling.

Four Peacekeepers and their stun sticks came at Jessica at once. She stumbled back from them and tripped over someone on the ground. 

“Shit!” she exclaimed at the lifeless looking Johanna. Her face looked like it was rapidly bruising and a long cut ran down almost her entire left arm. “Johanna. Johanna,” Jessica called as she scurried toward her. 

She was reaching for her neck to check for a pulse when a boot collided with her face and set her twisting away from her. Suddenly, even more Peacekeepers were on her. She tried to fight them off for a moment but ended up just covering her face and tensing her body against the stuns and kicks. 

“The radar is picking up another hovercraft coming in,” Simmons said fearfully over the earpieces. 

“Must be more backup,” Plutarch added. “We need to leave, Jeri.” 

“Marie!” Clarice yelled amid another spray of gunfire. 

“Go! Clarice, keep moving!” Pete yelled. 

“Jessica?” Hogarth asked, her voice filled with distress. 

Jessica called out in pain as she was stunned in the chest again. “Fuck! Just go! Get them to safety!” 

“All right,” Hogarth replied sadly. “If you get out of this, Jessica get word to us or meet us in 12.” 

“Seems unlikely,” Jessica muttered through her another stun to the shoulder. 

With three Peacekeepers stunning her at once and another kicking her in the head, Jessica blacked out. 

Trish was heading up the stairs to the main level with Finnick when the hovercraft jolted forward. They both stumbled and grabbed the railing to steady themselves. 

“No, no,” Trish muttered to herself as she run up the stairs. She forced the door the main level opened and clambered into the command room. 

Everyone turned and looked at her. The girl in front of the computer screens quickly diverted her eyes. Plutarch gazed at her quizzically and Hogarth gave her a guilty stare. 

“What are we doing?” Trish demanded of her as she walked toward her. 

“Trish,” Hogarth stated calmly. 

Trish huffed through clenched teeth. “Don’t. Where is she?” 

“We had our objectives, Miss Walker,” Plutarch informed her. 

Hogarth closed her eyes annoyed and sighed. 

“Objectives?” Trish hissed at him as she moved closer to him and Hogarth. “What the hell are you even doing here? You work for the Capital.” 

He smirked. “Most of us here have worked for the Capital at some point, including you, Miss Walker.”

Trish was ready to lunge at him and punch the stupid look off his face, but Finnick grabbed her and pulled her back. 

“Plutarch,” Hogarth said sternly, glaring at him. “Stop talking.” 

Trish struggled away from Finnick and shoved him. 

“Calm down, Trish,” he said caringly. 

“We knew this was a possibility from the beginning,” Hogarth stated. 

Trish forgot to breathe for a moment as she realized it had happened again. Jessica had risked everything to save her again. She shook and tried to keep in her tears. She finally took a few labored shaky breathes. 

“I-i-is…she...” Trish trailed off unable to bring herself to ask about her greatest fear. 

Hogarth peered over uncertainly at the girl at the tech station. 

She shook her head. “All the members of her team were implanted with tracking chips and health monitors. We’ve lost contact with her so she is probably unconscious,” Simmons told her. 

“And Johanna?” Katniss asked fearfully. 

Trish turned around and met the teary, terrified eyes of the younger girl. Katniss looked away from her and peered at Simmons. 

Simmons peered at Hogarth uncertainly. 

“We don’t know. Johanna removed her tracker before we arrived,” Hogarth explained. 

Katniss stared at her catatonically for a moment before she started to shake uncontrollably and nearly collapsed. Trish and Finnick both went to catch her. Trish held the younger girl as she frantically panted into her chest and started to cry. With the sound of Katniss crying, the uncertainty about Johanna and the horrific knowledge that Jessica had been capture by the Capital, Trish was unable to suppress her growing sorrow and began to cry too. 

Hogarth looked over at Finnick, who weakly nodded at her, looking just as defeated and guilty as she felt. 

“Ma’am,” Simmons called to her. 

“Yes,” Hogarth replied, sniffing away a tear and turning toward her. 

“There seems to be a problem at the 12 base,” Simmons told her. 

Both of their attentions were pulled away for a moment when most of Jessica’s team came through the doors from the lower level. 

“Patch through the video feed,” Hogarth instructed. 

Simmons shook her head. “No one is answering.” 

Hogarth turned and glared pointedly at Plutarch. He shook his head unknowingly. 

“Have you tried the radios?” Daisy asked as she reached Simmons side and leaned over to see her screens.

She shook her head as Daisy pulled up the radio feed. 

“12, this is Extraction. Come in,” Simmons said into the microphone of her headset. 

The main level was filled with tense silence aside from the faint crying from Katniss. Trish had calmed herself to tearful breathes. 

“Extraction, this is 12,” a muffled voice said through the radio feed. 

“That’s Peeta,” Finnick announced. 

Katniss lifted her head slightly off Trish’s shoulder. 

“12, we are headed your way,” Simmons said. “What is your status?” 

There was a pause filled with crackling interference. 

“You can’t come to 12,” he stated.

“Why not?” Hogarth commanded. 

“Explain,” Simmons said. 

There was another pause and then a different voice came through. 

“It’s gone,” Luke informed them heavily. “It’s been firebombed.” 

Katniss started to shake again and cling tightly to Trish. Trish looked over Katniss’ shoulder at Hogarth, who peered back at her with the same look of overwhelming emotion and shock. 

“I have another solution,” Plutarch informed everyone. 

“What possible solution could there be?” Hogarth shot at him. 

He made his way over to the tech station. “May I, Miss Simmons?” he asked. 

Simmons pushed her chair back uncertainly and Daisy stood beside her protectively. He turned the radio feed to a different station. 

“President Coin, come in,” Plutarch said. 

The members of Jessica’s team gazed at each other uncertainly as Trish detected a look of actual fear on Hogarth’s face for the first time. 

“Mr. Heavensbees,” a woman voice crackled through the radio. “I presume the extraction didn’t go as planned.” 

Plutarch smirked to himself. “Have you caught wind of the situation in 12?” 

“We have,” she replied. “Should we prepare a landing pad?” 

“That would be most helpful,” he stated. “There are also some survivors in 12.” 

“I’ll send a craft for them,” she replied. 

“Thank you, Madame President,” he said. He turned the radio back to the original station and stepped away from the tech station. 

“What the hell was that?” Daisy asked. 

Plutarch smiled. “The alternate plan.”

“Alternate plan?” Hogarth questioned with a hint of betrayal in her voice. “There was an alternate plan?” 

Trish peered at her astounded that there were pieces the revolution that Hogarth didn’t even know about. 

“We can’t all be privy to all the plans, Jeri,” Plutarch replied. “It is safer this way. 

Hogarth huffed angrily. 

“So, where are we going?” Finnick inquired. 

“District 13,” Plutarch replied simply.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish's visit to District 12 leaves her with nothing but conflicted feelings as she doesn't find the one thing she was hoping to see again.

_Four months later_

Trish slowly walked down the street she grew up on. She was in search of the one part of her hometown she hoped was still there. But, just like everything else it was gone. Bombed away, burned away and covered in ash.

It was stupid really to even go looking for it. It's not like she would ever lie on the hill and look at the stars with Jessica ever again.

Trish stopped and peered down at her ash covered boots. Ash had been swirling up so much from her footsteps, the first to touch it since the bombing, that it had dirtied the pants of her baggy jumpsuit as well. The stupid thing was so baggy she was actually able to fit her bulky white healing leg brace underneath it.

Trish rubbed the ash away with the sole of her boot against what she knew was the end of the pathway that lead to the front door, which like the rest of the house, the guest house and the backyard, was no longer distinguishable. It was just a charred, ash pit.

She peered down at what she had uncovered. She smiled sadly to herself and closed her eyes and took a deep breath to stop herself from crying.

_It didn't happen again. She's alive. She's strong. She'll survivor._

Trish opened her eyes and peered down at the patch of concrete that had "TW + JJ" craved into it.

It had been Trish's idea. Stupid, romantic 17-year-old Trish's idea. Her mother had told her and Jess to leave the drying concrete alone, but that was the morning after a painful night when Trish was passed up for a role in an upcoming teen horror movie. The call came in while Jessica was at work at Luke's Bar and Trish was left with no defenses. So as an act of defiance in the morning, Trish craved her initials into the wet concrete and made her best friend, who she was beginning to think she liked more than a friend, do the same.

Luke cautiously stepped beside Trish. He followed her eyes to the craving and smirked. Trish looked over at him and weakly smiled.

"Your bar?" she asked.

"Nah," he said shaking his head as he crossed him arm over his chest. "I knew nothing would be left. I saw it burning the night of the bombing."

Trish nodded compassionately. "I'm sorry."

"Me too. But it seems stupid to care so much about it," he replied. "It was just a bar."

He paused as Trish nodded understandingly.

"We didn't have enough time to get to this part of town," Luke explained as he peered out into the charred remains of the Walker property. "I'm sorry I couldn't get your mother out."

Trish huffed and shook her head slightly. "I'm not sure if I am," she told him with a mixture of sadness and fear about her own feelings.

She had never felt so conflicted about her emotions before. Her mother had died in the fire bombing. Her remains were probably somewhere in the ash pit in front of Trish, but she could barely bring herself to feel upset about it. Mostly, she just felt numb. There was only one person she wanted to talk to about it but she couldn't. And that made her more upset than the fact she had been orphaned at 20.

"You been to your other house yet?" Luke asked her.

Trish smirked to herself. She had felt conflicted -- it was becoming a common theme for her -- about 'coming home' with everyone else from 12. She knew it had mostly been for Katniss and for Cressida, to a lesser degree, so she could film it and use the footage in the Capital attack propos she and her team were creating for the revolution. Trish wasn't really given a choice, so she went with the other surviving 12 resident who wanted to.

But 12 didn't feel like home anymore. So many terrible things had happened to her there. She had put it behind her and made her own home. It was a nearly perfect Capital apartment that she had shared with Jessica for almost a year.

"I guess I should go see it," Trish said as she left Luke and the remains of her childhood home behind her as she headed for the Victor Village.

Ash kicked up from the weight of her boots and the boots of Cressida's cameraman Pollux, who was walking backward a few feet ahead of her. Trish knew him well at this point. He had worked on all the movies she had done with Cressida and _It's Patsy in the Capital_ before that. Trish liked him and thought he might be one of the best camera she had worked with.

Maybe it was something to do with him being an Avox, but he seemed to have the ability to make her feel absolutely natural when his camera was on.

"I guess you want me to say something about what I am feeling?" Trish asked into the camera.

Pollux smiled from underneath his visor and shrugged.

Trish shook her head angrily and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jumpsuit.

"I'm not sure what I can even say about the Capital at this point," Trish said with a subdued rage. "They have taken everything from me."

Trish stopped when she reached the archway of the Victor Village that looked so systematically destroyed. Her house, Katniss, Peeta and Hogarth's were completely untouched but the six vacant houses were just piles of broken bricks.

"But of course, the Capital left me this," Trish said heatedly into Pollux's camera.

He filmed her walk past him and then toward her house, slowly revealing the bleak contrast between it and the rumble piles.

"Oh, that was perfect," Cressida said excitedly as she placed a hand on Pollux and Trish's shoulders.

They were seated beside each other at a table in a projection room somewhere in District 13 viewing the footage a few days later.

Pollux gave a small nod in reply. Trish weakly smiled up at her.

"This is all well and good, but what footage did you get of the Mockingjay?" President Coin questioned annoyed.

Pam scoffed loudly at her as Hogarth shook her head irritated.

"You really have no idea what the rest of the nation is like," Finnick informed her.

Trish sunk into her chair slightly, feeling embarrassed at how quick everyone was to defend her.

"They aren't wrong, Madame President," Plutarch added calmly. "You have been underground for a very long time."

"The Mockingjay is for your pissed off with or leaning toward the revolution citizens," Cressida explained. "But Patsy Walker is someone everyone knows."

"And after the Capital left her heartbroken, she is someone everyone supports and can relate to," Hogarth added.

Cressida nodded at Hogarth pleased. "So if she's mad at the Capital, why shouldn't I, the average Panem citizen, be mad at the Capital?" she said to Coin.

The president did not look impressed with the explanation. "The Mockingjay is more useful to us,"'Coin stated.

"She is," Trish stated with a nod, shoving her hands into Jessica's leather jacket. It had been with her things at the tribute center before the Quarter Quell and had miraculously made it's way to 13.

"But so is Patsy Walker," Hogarth declared slowly.

"Then why don't you just use her?" Katniss called her from chair in the corner. "I never asked to be a part of this."

"It isn't that simple, Miss Everdeen," Plutarch replied.

"You are all making it seem like it is," Katniss called angrily as she stood and stormed out of the room.

"What good is she if she will not work with us?" Coin demanded at Plutarch.

"She has only been out of the hospital for a couple weeks," he explained. "Just give her some time to recover."

"You should have saved that angry woodswoman of hers," Coin stated. "That would have made her more compliant."

Finnick sighed. Peeta continued his silence and just fidgeted in his chair. Hogarth peered across the table at Trish. They made angry and annoyed eye contact with each other. Trish noticed even Pam was looking annoyed at the bullshit, which seemed like a strange paradox.

"Excuse me," Trish stated to the room as she stood and walked out.

She made her way through the brightly lite corridor to the staircase and up to the 12th level, where almost too uniformly the surviving District 12 residents had been assigned room. Trish pulled open the maintenance hatch and crawled to the back near the large water pipes. Trish sat with her back against the wall and pulled her knees to her chest. She crossed her arms against her knees and peered upward. Katniss was curled up in front of her with her back towards her.

"Go away, Trish. You are the last person I want to see right now," Kantiss told her. She knew it was her without looking. She was the only person who had found her hiding spot.

Trish sighed. "I know," she replied.

"Then what are you doing here?" Katniss inquired.

Trish shrugged. "Not being in that meeting."

"I don't get it," Katniss admitted. "If you're so great, why do I have to be involved?"

Trish smirked and chuckled lightly. "You know Jessica asked me the once," Trish told her nostalgically. "I showed her the reaping footage from your first games. I was going on about how great you were and how you'd be prefect for the revolution. And she asked me as a girl from District 12 who volunteered for someone she loved how you were any different than I was?"

Katniss shyly turned to look at Trish. "What did you tell her?"

Trish peered down from the ceiling and looked at the younger girl. "I'm not the real District 12."

Katniss peered at her confused. Trish hesitated as she struggled to suppress her tears. Katniss' expression look too much like Jessica's had.

"I can't be the people's hero, Katniss," Trish told her. "They might sympathize with me or relate to me but they don't see themselves in me."

"They do in me?" Katniss asked.

Trish nodded seriously. Katniss seemed to contemplate for a moment and then she smirked at Trish.

"What?" the older girl replied.

"I blend in better than you do," Katniss pointed out.

Trish raised an eyebrow at her. "That is one way to look at it."

Kantiss smiled to herself. "Do you even remember me from school?" she asked.

Trish shrugged. "Vaguely," she answered awkwardly.

Katniss almost laughed. "That is it, I guess. Nobody knew me but we all knew your name since you played the lead role in the older grades' play when you were only in the fifth grade."

Trish laughed. "Lysistrata," she said shaking her head. "So many of the older kids hated me for that."

"You never seemed to have a problem," Katniss replied.

Trish smiled weakly. "I had a lot actually, until I met Jessica."

The mention of her name silenced the both of them. Katniss fidgeted and Trish pulled the leather jacket tightly across her shoulders.

"Do you...uh...do you think they are OK?" Katniss asked. She really wanted to ask if she thought they were alive but she couldn't bring herself to say it.

Trish understand. "Yes. I'm not giving up hope, on either of them. They are much too strong for that."


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish is having a rather average day in District 13 until a Capital broadcast interrupts her dinner.

Trish grabbed her attacker by the shoulders, flung him around and slammed him to the ground. He struggled for breath. She straddled him, punched him a few times and tried to remove his gas mask. He attempted to push her off. After a few more seconds of struggling she removed it. She peered down at the familiar face in shock and horror.

He took a deep breath. She let him push her away this time and knelt beside him as he pushed himself into a sitting position. They peered at each other intensely.

"I hoped to never see you again, Collins," Trish hissed at him angrily.

Finnick shook his head and laughed through a cocky smile. "You don't mean that, Beaufoy."

"Fuck you," Trish replied. "You betrayed our team, everything we stood for. I thought you wanted a better world, like the rest of us. But you were just out for yourself. You soulless bastard."

"It isn't that simple," Finnick replied. "You should know that more than anyone."

"Bomb drop in the distance," Cressida called.

Trish and Finnick both looked to their left anxiously. 

"Shit, shit," Finnick called as he scrambled to his feet and pulled Trish up with him.

"What are you doing?" Trish questioned him skeptically as he pulled the gas mask over her face.

Finnick started slowly running toward the nearby tree line. Trish followed.

"There is poison gas in those bombs," he informed her. 

"Then why did you give me the mask?" Trish asked him forcefully.

"I might not like you, Simone," Finnick told her. "But I would like a dead you even less."

They reached the foxhole and both jumped down onto the crash pad.

"Cut!" Cressida yelled.

"That was good, right?" Finnick asked in his normal voice as he stood on the crash pad and extended a hand to Trish.

She grabbed it and let him help her up. She pulled off the gas mask as she nodded. "It was good," she reassured him. 

"You don't seem as interested as you used to be," Finnick stated.

Trish scoffed at him.

"I mean, it's not affecting your acting at all," Finnick clarified. "I just mean, aside from that."

Trish took a deep breathe as she started climbing up the ladder out of the foxhole, which was just pieces of wood jammed into the muddy wall of the trench. 

"Look, I understand Cressida's point and why making still making Together We Die and releasing it without the Capital's help is important," Trish explained. 

She reached the surface and waited until Finnick did the same.

"But, the Capital still has Jessica and Johanna. And it is just a silly action movie," she explained.

Finnick nodded understandingly. 

"That was excellent," Cressida told them as they reached her. "But I shouldn't be expecting anything less from the two of you these days," she told both of them while keeping her eyes on Trish.

Trish uncomfortably nodded and backed away slightly. "Are we done for the day?"

"Filming-wise? Yes," she replied.

Trish nodded. "I told Luke I would make an appearance at training," she stated. "Excuse me."

Trish walked away from the minimal film crew that Cressida had assembled to still crank out Together We Die despite all the resources of the Capital being lost to them. After another long meeting of convincing, President Coin had agreed allowing them above ground to film was a good and pragmatic idea. 

Trish pushed the door to the first level of the District 13 settlement. She went to the elevator and took it 20 or so stories down to the vast training level. The elevator doors opened and everyone stopped their training to gaze at her as she stepped onto the floor.

They each quickly looked away and continued with their training. Trish laughed to herself slightly. It was the perfect thing for them to do. It would be exactly what Jessica would have wanted. As much as District 13's rulers and the revolution's higher ups tried to deny it, the super recruits, maybe the most lethal team in the nation, was more loyal to Jessica Jones than anyone else.

That was why Trish enjoyed training with them. They all had the same philosophy that she did. She had felt nervous around them at first because of how they all treated her. They all had an incredibly amount of respect for her. Trish assumed that was Jessica's influence. 

"You able to help out for a while?" Luke asked as he approached her near the elevator. 

Trish nodded. Luke had taken over for Jessica as the leader of the super recruits. He had been convincing different regular people to fight against the super recruits so they learn to use their powers against the average person.

Trish nodded. "I could use some real fighting," she told him.

He smiled. "The stunts not doing it for you anymore?"

She shook her head. Her anger and fear regarding Jessica's now four months of imprisonment in the Capital was now more than fake fighting Finnick could cure.

Luke nodded understandingly. "Why don't you go fight Kurt down at the end?"

Trish nodded and walked past the rows of fighting, most where kids with gift versus others but a few were gifted people versus regular people, mostly from 12. The District 13 soldiers didn't want anything to do with "the freaks on level 20".

"You can't be defensive all the time. You have to attack once in a while," Kitty told Kurt who was in front of her at the end of the padded training floor. 

"Maybe I could help," Trish said to Kitty, who had replaced Luke as the second in command.

She nodded at her with a smile. "That would be a good challenge," Kitty stated as she stepped to the sideline and motioned for Kurt to attack Trish.

The boy, who had pulled everyone but her out of the arena, gazed at her anxiously as he raised his hands nervously into fists. Trish waited for him to attack her first. He eventually did and she grabbed his arm, twisted it and flipped him onto the ground.

She backed away from him and let him get to his feet. He charge at her again. Trish placed her hands on his shoulders, ready to jump up and wrap her legs around him and force him to the ground. But, he transported them about six feet into the air, shoved Trish away as he disappeared from her view and landed on his feet back on the ground.

Trish tried to steady herself as she fell toward the mat. She was barely able to brace herself from landing face first. She groaned in pain as she pushed herself to her feet.

"That was good," Kitty told the boy.

"Bet you can't do it again?" Trish taunted as she charged at him.

About 30 minutes and a handful of bruises later, Trish made her way through the dinner line in the cafeteria. She carried her tray over to the table where Finnick and Annie were sitting with Katniss and Peeta. 

"What happened to your face?" Katniss asked her as she sat down.

Trish lightly ran her hand over the slowly forming bruise. She hadn't expected Kurt to be able to land such a good punch. "It's nothing. I was training with the super recruits," she told them.

Finnick leaned closer to get a better look. "That isn't going to heal before we start filming tomorrow," he stated.

"You aren't filming tomorrow, " Katniss stated as she started to scoop up the lumping gray soup but then poured it back into the bowl. 

"Well not for the movie," Peeta added as he started pulling plastic containers out of the bag beside his feet. He handed one to everyone. "I made eatable alternatives for everyone," he said quietly.

"Thank you," Annie stated as she pulled off the lid of her meal. She gazed over at Finnick, who had an equally excited wide grin on his face.

"You could have told us before I attempted to eat this garbage?" Katniss questioned as she plunged her fork into hers.

He shrugged. Peeta had gotten himself a job in the kitchens of 13 about a month ago. A good enough one that he had access to most supplies. He had been making them alternatives to the barely eatable District 13 meals. They offered the perfect amount of nutritions but not any taste.

"You are vegan, right?" Peeta asked Trish as he handed her her container.

"Vegetarian," she corrected.

He smiled. "That will make the next one easier. That's one is vegan."

Trish smiled. "Either way, thank you," she told him.

"So you guys doing propos filming tomorrow?" Finnick asked.

Katniss nodded. "I am. Are you?" she asked Trish.

She shook her head. "I haven't been told anything. But they might want both of us. What have you been doing recently?"

Katniss shrugged. "A bunch of training. Apparently it is going to be part of a montage to show I'm not injured and am still fighting."

Before Trish could answer, everyone was distracted by the Panem theme playing loudly from then screens throughout the cafeteria. It drew in everyone's attention and the room was strangely silent.

_"Ladies and gentleman," Cesar Flickerman began in a room that didn't look like part of his studio. "Tonight I am pleased to bring you an exclusive interview with one of the survivors of the Quarter Quell."_

Katniss instantly stood and took a few steps toward the screen. Trish perked up and anxiously crossed her arm tightly against her chest. 

_"The winner of the 71st Hunger Games surprised us all a few years ago, but winning her games," Cesar said._

Trish ran her hand through her hair and clenched it tightly as she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She was feeling conflicted again. She figured it would be Johanna but she still hoped deep down that she would get to see a glimpse of Jessica. But the nation thought she was dead, it was stupid to even hope.

_"She returned again to surprise us once more with her relationship with the Girl of Fire. Johanna, what can you say about your actions?" Cesar asked as the camera cut to her._

_She scoffed angrily behind her thick make up and shifted in her incredibly fancy Capital style dress. "Say for my actions?" she shot back._

Trish was about to stand and comfort Katniss, who was struggling for breath and uncomfortably fidgeting in front if her, but Peeta beat her to it. 

_"You assisted Katniss Everdeen in her traitorous plan against the Capital," he stated._

_"Katniss' plan?" Johanna said with another scoff as she rolled her eyes. "She had nothing to do with what happened in the arena."_

_"You are telling me the Girl on Fire didn't assist in the arena escape?" Cesar asked._

_"I am telling you the Girl on Fire is a girl. You fuckers might all think she is a god damn traitor now, but she is still just a regular person from District 12 who was trying to protect her sister from your child murdering bullshit," Johanna yelled into the camera._

The screen cut to black for a moment and then went blank on the mandatory viewing screens in the cafeteria. Trish heard a familiar score coming from one of the televisions that was always on. She turned and saw the opening credits for _It's Patsy in the Capital._

Trish placed her elbows on the table and held her head in her hands. 

"Why'd it cut out?" Katniss said frantically as she turned to Peeta, who pulled her into a hug.

"It's OK, Katniss," he replied. "She'll be OK."

Trish peered over at Finnick and Annie, who looked about as terrified as she felt. Annie buried her head in Finnick's shoulder as he placed his arm around her. 

"Uh, Trish Walker," Gale Hawthorne said as she approached their table. "President Coin wants you and Katniss in command."

Trish peered up at him uncertainly. "Coin does?"

"And Hogarth," he added.

Trish nodded anxiously. "Tell them we will be there in a moment."

"Yes, ma'am," Gale stated as he turned and walked away.

"That cut was bad," Finnick stated. "Bad for Johanna."

Trish nodded sadly.

Annie slowly pulled herself away from Finnick's shoulder. "They didn't show Jessica," Annie said softly.

Trish pressed her lips together to suppress her tears. It was such a simple statement but someone actually saying it nearly broke her barely held together emotions.

"That could not be a bad thing," Finnick added.

"I know," Trish replied with a teary nod. "I know."


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The resistance goes into response mode after Johanna's interview, leading to Trish filming her first propo.

Katniss was silent beside Trish as they took the elevator to the command room. Trish reached for the handle to slide open the elevator door but one of President Coin's lackeys beat her to it.

"This way," he said barely acknowledging Trish and nodding to Katniss.

He lead them through the brightly lite hallway. Trish was annoyed that they were even being escorted. They both knew the way to command. But, she knew she was just on edge.

Once the lackey lead them inside, she realized she wasn't the only one. Katniss quickly walked away as soon as they entered.

"Miss Everdeen," Plutarch said to no avail as she walked past him and closer to the large projection of Johanna's interview on the wall.

"Are they replaying it?" Trish asked him.

"Damnit!" Daisy shouted at her computer. "We are never going to break this."

"Just give it some time," Beetee replied from his computer beside her.

"We recorded it," Plutarch replied with a nod to Trish.

"We are going to trace it and see where the feed is coming from," Coin stated as she stood stiffly beside an angry looking Hogarth, who leaning back against a counter of unmanned stations, and Cressida, who was seated in one of the chairs.

Trish took a step closer to the projection and peered closely at the footage. "That's the president's mansion," Trish stated as she peered over at the three of them.

Cressida threw up a hand annoyed as she huffed. "See?" she shot at Coin.

"We are wasting time this with," Hogarth hissed at her.

"We need to be certain," Coin replied.

Hogarth sighed annoyed. "We are."

"We need to send a response," Cressida told her exasperated.

"They aren't wrong, Alma," Plutarch added as he walked over to them. "The last anyone has seen of the Mockingjay and Patsy Walker was before Miss Walker broke the force field in the arena."

"It would be unwise to send everything too inflammatory this early," Coin stated.

"I actually agree," Hogarth admitted.

"I can cut together something harmless," Cressida informed them. "I already have enough of Katniss. I would just need to do some filming with Trish."

Trish peered over at Katniss, who was still staring desperately at the silent image of Johanna on the projection.

"That would work," Plutarch stated.

"Good," Trish said as she peered back of them. "Do we have a way to broadcast it?"

"Beetee is working on it," Hogarth told her.

"Then we can start working tomorrow morning," Trish stated to Cressida.

She nodded with wide smile.

Trish peered back at Katniss and then remember why they were in command in the first place.

"Katniss and I were sent for," Trish stated. "By you and Coin," she directed at Hogarth.

"Yes. We wanted to go over filming schedules with the both of you but I don't think she is going to be of much help," Hogarth stated firmly with a nod toward Katniss.

"We can work on the schedule later," Cressida stated. "Just meet me at the set tomorrow."

Trish nodded and headed out of the room. She didn't want to witness Katniss watching the video anymore. She was too tired to stay with Katniss and try and make her feel better. She was sick of being the more emotionally stable of the two faces of the revolution. The one who was supposed to handle being screwed over by the Capital better because she had been for longer.

She kept finding herself getting frustrated with Katniss. Johanna had been gone for four months. This was the fifteenth month in the past three years that Jessica had either been dead or missing.

She needed to stop thinking like that. But she knew that was unlikely because what she really needed was Jessica.

Trish was looking down at her shoes to try to get that thought out of her head as she turned the corner on the twelfth level toward her bedroom. She nearly jumped when she saw someone sitting in the hallway.

"What are you doing out here?" Trish asked Annie, who had her back against the wall outside her and Finnick's room. They were the only District 4 residents in 13 so they had been placed with the 12 residents.

"I thought you might want to talk to someone," Annie told her.

Trish sat beside her and huffed. "Yeah, I do," she stated. It came out meaner than she intended.

"You don't want to talk to me. I know that. Nobody is talking about Jessica. They are all talking about Johanna."

Trish took a deep breath. "I don't blame them."

"You can't be what they want," Annie told her softly. "They want you to be normal and-and act like everything is OK. But sometimes it isn't OK and it won't be for a long time. You just have to wait to make your way through it however you can."

Trish took a long deep breath. "I'm hardly ever even sad about it anymore. I'm pissed off and...I just want her back."

"Then get her back," Annie said simply.

Trish nodded at her with a small smile. "I'm trying."

The next morning, Trish launched herself off a strategically placed fallen tree and fired her weapon at the first attacker. One of the stunt men that made it out of the Capital with Cressida forcefully fell to the ground as Trish went onto the next one.

She fired blanks at him. The next one came too fast and she whacked him in the helmet with the butt of her gun. She ignored the cracking sound that was not supposed to be there. He spun with the motion and collided with the ground. Trish started to scramble away but tripped when he touched his hand to her left ankle.

She screamed out in pain as she jumped down onto her stomach. She turned toward the cameras and kicked at the attacker's helmet. He flung his head back and laid still. Trish scrambled to her feet and ran out of the shot.

"Cut!" Cressida yelled.

Trish turned and quickly ran back to her last attacker.

"Ginsu, I am so sorry," Trish told the stunt trainee from 12 as she helped him up. "I got you in the face, didn't I?"

Cressida jogged up to them holding a small camera she was using to film Trish's propos footage. "The kick looked fine," she said.

"Not the kick," Ginsu groaned as he undid his helmet strap and started to slowly pull his helmet off.

Trish assisted clenching her teeth in concern. "I actually hit him with the gun," she told Cressida and her propo camera.

The two of them got the helmet off. Ginsu held it at his side as he rubbed his jaw with his other head. He held up the helmet and laughed at it as a few pieces rattled inside it and some others fell off.

"Oh god, I'm sorry," Trish repeated.

He smiled at her. "Don't worry about it, Trish," he told her. "It probably looked cool. Plus if I get a bruise from getting hitting in the face by Patsy Walker that is pretty fucking cool."

Trish laughed slightly. "Well, I am glad to be of service."

Cressida dismissed everyone beside Trish, Pollux and Castor. They drove the small transport vehicle into the woods to find a place to film the casual interview Cressida wanted for the propo footage. She had been filming Trish all day but this would be the first non-candid segment.

Cressida had Castor stop the vehicle when they reached a clearing the woods.

"This will be good," the director said.

"Are there any towels back there?" Trish asked Pollux as she reached his side as he was standing at the back of the vehicle. He found one and handed it to her.

"Thanks," she said as she poured water from her canteen over the towel. She haphazardly rubbed the battle makeup, which was a lot of fake dirt and blood, off her face. She tossed her hair around with her hand a bit to make it look more like how she usually wore it. "Good?" she asked Pollux.

He smiled and nodded.

She nodded back.

She grabbed Jessica's leather jacket out of the vehicle and threw it over her _Together We Die_ costume. She headed over to Cressida, who was standing in different positions in front of a large rock and peering at the picture on her camera.

"Trish, could you," she stopped abruptly when she looked up at her. "That looks good," she did with a cheeky tone. "I'm going to have you sit on this rock."

"OK," Trish said with a nod as she walked over and sat down.

She was bounced her right leg. She was starting to feel nervous. She had been trying not to focus on this part of the filming all day. The rest of it had been easy. Going about her day like normal with a camera on her? She was used to that. But, sitting down and answering questions about the Capital and what they had done to her? It had been nearly a year since she had to do that. It hadn't been easy then and she knew it would not be now.

"All right, Trish," Cressida asked over her camera. "You ready?"

Trish nodded. "I'm ready," she told her as she shoved her hands deep into the pockets of the jacket.

"Tell us what you have been up to for the last four months?" Cressida asked her.

Trish smirked to herself. "I know nobody had seen me, me or Katniss, since the arena. As you can see, we aren't dead or injured or running scared. We have been laying low with the resistance."

"What resistance?" Cressida questioned.

Trish laughed slightly and looked at the ground for a moment before peering straight into her camera. "What resistance you might ask? Believe me, it's bigger and stronger than you think, than you could possibly imagine."

Trish paused for a moment.

"I shot an arrow at a ceiling. But that didn't get me here. It didn't get me, the Girl on Fire or Finnick Odair out of the Capital's reach, to safety," she added.

"What about those who didn't make it to safety?"

Trish peered down for a moment and took a deep breath.

"There are always...dangers in war," Trish began tearfully. "And sometimes people are lost or left behind. But, we can't let that discourage us. We can't let it discourage them."

"If you could say something to those who were captured by the Capital what would it be?" Cressida asked.

Trish had to admire her cleverness. She was asking her to talk about Jessica, while they couldn't mention her by name because everyone still thought she was dead.

"Don't give up. Keep fighting. There are people here who love you and care about you. We aren't going to abandon you. The Capital can throw anything they want at us, but I will get you back," Trish said forcefully into the camera.

Cressida smiled pleased over her camera. "You are prefect," she said shaking her head in amazement.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica is doing her best to stand up against the Capital in their captivity, but nothing is going as she planned.

Jessica called out in pain as she felt her skin on her left shoulder be scrapped off from the rough concrete floor of her cell. The guard had thrown her into it like always and the shoulder of her jacket had shredded away long ago. She only had a tank top on underneath it. She had picked the outfit because she knew it would be easy to fight off arena guards and save Trish in. She hadn't planned to wear it for very long.

_Yeah that didn't fucking go as planned._

She rolled onto her back to stop the pain in her scrapped, bleeding shoulder. The rest of her body hurt enough as is. Most of the time she could figure out why she was taken to the torture room down the hall, but this time she had no idea.

The guards would usually ask questions about the resistance, who was involved, where their hideouts were, where she found the gifted people who helped in the escape, where Katniss was, where Trish was.

She had never given an answer. Well not a true answer. A few times after hours of shocks from those fucking stun sticks, water boarding or repeated punches and hits while she was drugged and strapped to a table, she would give them false information.

Once she told them the base was in District 2. Jessica wasn't even sure if there was one person from District 2 in the resistance. Another time she told them the leader of the resistance was a side character from one of the early _It's Patsy_ movies. They were pretty pissed off when they figured that out.

But this time was different. They drugged her to nearly paralyze her, strapped her to the table and started with the stun sticks, like always. But they didn't ask any new questions. Usually, she was taken to the torture room because they had learned some kind of new information or heard a rumor. But, today it seemed like nothing.

Jessica drug herself to the flimsy mat at the back corner of her cell. The drug still hadn't worn off. She got herself onto the mat, wincing in pain and laid on her back. She turned to the small hole she and her neighbor had dug so they could communicate through the concrete walls that surrounded them.

"Johanna," Jessica whispered. She didn't hear anything. "Johanna."

Jessica turned up to the ceiling and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Damnit," she hissed to herself.

She thought she had heard Johanna be take out of her cell shortly before they came for her. For some reason that Jessica couldn't work out, when one of them was taken out of their cell so was the other.

Jessica laid still and tried to focus on something other than the aching pain she was in. Like always, her mind went instantly to Trish. Jessica knew she had to be safe and out of the Capital's reach. They wouldn't be asking so many questions about her if she wasn't.

With that knowledge in mind, Jess' thoughts about Trish were always tragically simple. She just wanted to be with her, just to be in the same room as her. That would be enough.

She kept her eyes closed and imagined Trish was there. She would be lightly running her hand over Jessica's wounds as she'd clench her teeth and make that worried, concerned face she always did. She'd probably lay a blanket over her and apologize for no reason.

 _You fucking sap_ , Jessica thought to herself annoyed.

It was pathetic how desperately and simply Jessica needed Trish. She thought she had hit her lowest point during her 11 months of death. But even then her fantasies about Trish involved a minimum of kissing. Now that seemed like too much to even hope for. It was just too unrealistic in her current situation.

Jessica heard a hissing sound of the automatic glass door of the cells open. It had to be Johanna's. She lifted her head and then willed herself to her feet and reached the door of her cell. She peered over to her neighbor's cell but couldn't see anything.

"Ah, fuck," she heard Johanna call between coughs after it sounded like she was thrown into her cell.

"You were not nearly as helpful as we had hoped," one of the guards hissed.

"Well, I am so fucking sorry to disappoint you," Johanna shot back, sounding injured and weak. "Would murdering your entire family or forcing you into the Hunger Games twice help in any way?"

"Shit," Jessica said under her breath to herself. This wasn't going to end well.

"Speaking against the Capital is treason," the guard stated. Jessica heard his boots move across the pavement. He was walking toward Johanna.

"Yeah?" she coughed. "Where does torture fall?"

She didn't get an answer. She screamed in pain as the closer guard started to kick her. He did until the other one got close, then he pinned her to the concrete floor and punched her repeatedly.

"Fuck, fuck," Jessica said to herself as she listened to her scream.

Jessica imagined Trish being beside her again.

 _You could do something, Jess_ , Trish would tell her with a half smile. _You could be a hero._

"Shut up, Trish," Jessica stated to herself as she backed up and then ran at the glass door of her cell. She dipped her shoulder and smashed it into the glass. It shattered around her and she quickly turned toward Johanna's cell.

The second guard turned toward her. He peered at her shocked for a moment and then charged at her. She grabbed him around the shoulders and slammed his head against the wall until he passed out and she dropped him as he slid to the ground.

The other didn't move from his position. Jessica lunged at him over a bleeding and nearly unconscious Johanna. His shoulder slammed onto the hard floor as Jessica forced him off Johanna. She punched him in the face and swiftly knocked him out.

"Johanna," she called as she scrambled over to her and placed a hand on the side of her bleeding, swollen face.

She coughed and spurted blood at Jessica. It was in that moment that Jess realized she didn't have any plan beyond this point. She wanted to stop the guards from beating Johanna to death, but she didn't have any kind of escape plan in place. She spent less than a moment panicking about that but it was enough for the guards to be on her.

Before she could even pull herself away from Johanna to attack them, she heard a loud bang and then her shoulder exploded with pain. She yelled as she slumped away from Johanna and onto the ground.

_Bullets? That is new._

Trish jumped when she heard someone pounding on her door in District 13. She would have ignored it if didn’t sound so urgent. It had been a long few days since she finished filming her propo footage with Cressida. Beetee and Daisy had made their way through the Capital’s defense and was able to broadcast the footage to every mandatory viewing screen in the nation. Well, at least the ones in the districts. Beetee was unable to tell if they made it into the Capital. 

Coin figured it had for how quickly they responded. Less than three hours later, the Capital broadcasted another interview with Johanna. Everyone assumed it had to be prerecorded because it was impossible for Johanna’s condition to deteriorate that quickly in the five days since the first interview. 

It had all left Trish exhausted and unable to sleep. She had stood in command with all the key members and uneasily comforted Katniss as the footage played again and again. Johanna was less forceful. She was still speaking ill against the Capital but she sounded defeated. It was probably what the Capital was going for. 

Weirdly, Hogarth and Pam came to Trish’s rescue. Pam took over holding the crying Mockingjay and Hogarth led Trish to the side near a row of unmanned stations. Hogarth didn’t say anything. She just stood in front of Trish and blocked her from everyone else’s view. Trish had thought of saying something but it wouldn’t be anything new and she wasn't going to get any new comfort out of what Hogarth would reply. The two of them seemed to have reached an understanding. Hogarth knew Trish didn’t need any words of encouragement but she appreciated the bit of privacy. 

Part of Trish was hoping to see Hogarth when she opened her door, but it was one of Coin’s soldiers. 

“Miss Walker, you’re needed in command. It’s urgent,” he said. 

“It’s the middle of the night. It better be,” Trish stated dryly. 

Trish slipped on her shoes and throw Jessica’s leather jacket over her tank top and pajama pants. She followed the solider down to the command level and into the room. 

Hogarth quickly turned toward Trish as she walked into the room. She was flanked by Pam, Cressida, Plutarch and Coin as a sleepily looking Luke and Kitty stood across from her. They all gazed at Trish for a moment. 

“What is this about?” Trish asked as she walked closer to them. She initially was headed for Cressida’s side but changed her course for Hogarth, she trusted her to tell her the truth more. 

“We’ve found something,” Hogarth stated slowly. She peered over at the computer station and nodded at Daisy and Beetee. 

Beetee peered at Daisy, who was busy diverting her eyes to Simmons, who was seated on the desk beside her. He then turned his gaze to everyone in the center of the room, but mostly to Trish. 

“We were able to track the video file of Johanna’s interview back to its original location,” he stated. 

Trish raised an eyebrow at him, not understanding why everyone was being so tense and serious. 

“When we did, we were able to access another file that was in the same source folder,” he told them. 

“A file of what?” Luke asked. 

“It’s of Jessica,” Beetee stated. 

Trish quickly turned to Hogarth. “A video?” she questioned. 

Hogarth took a deep breathe. “Yes,” she stated. 

“Then play it,” Luke demanded. 

Everyone was silent for moment. 

“You called me and the two heads of Jessica’s team down here,” Trish stated. “Clearly you were intending to play the video. I…I don’t care how terrible it is, just play it.” 

Luke nodded. “We need to see it.” 

Coin nodded to Beetee, but he didn’t play the video until Hogarth nodded at him. 

It projected on to the wall in front of them. Trish walked up to the railing that divided the main level of the command room from the server farm below. At first the projection on the wall was almost too dark to see anything. A light flashed as someone yelled in pain and struggled against the thick straps that were binding them to what looked like nothing more than a metal table. 

Trish exhaled a shaky breathe as she tightly clenched the railing in front of her. She had almost accepted that the first time she would see Jessica again would not be in a pleasant circumstance. But, she would have taken the glimpse on a rooftop that she thought was a hallucination a thousand times over what she was currently witnessing. 

The video was silent for a moment and then Jessica screamed in pain again. Trish peered down and away from it as she tried to stop herself from shaking. Luke silently reached her side and stood beside her with his hands against the railing. 

“They’re cutting out most of the audio,” Cressida stated.

“Can you recover it?” Coin asked. 

“I’ll try,” Daisy stated as she turned toward her computer screen. 

_Jessica yelled again. “Ah, fuck! I don’t fucking know,” she screamed._

Trish bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood. Jessica screamed and raised off the table in pain all in silence. Hogarth moved closer to Trish and awkwardly placed a hand on her shoulder. 

_“This will all stop if you just tell us what district they are in,“ a voice off screen told Jessica._

_She scoffed._

Trish pushed her fears aside and gazed straight at the video. She clenched her teeth and winced slightly. It had been a painful action for Jessica, she could tell. 

_“I already told you,” Jessica struggled to say above a whisper. “I don’t know.”_

Jessica yelled painfully and then whimpered and struggled for breathe. Trish peered over in reaction to a crunching noise and saw that Luke has crushed the metal railing in his hands. 

_“Then you are going to die here,” the voice stated._

Trish gasped nervously as everyone near her perked up and peered at the screen in concern. 

Jessica started to scream again and the video quickly cut to black. 

“Oh god,” Trish muttered nervously as her legs gave out. She turned as she slumped down and sat with her back against the railing. It should have been painful. She knew well enough how she could and couldn’t turn her left leg, but she didn’t feel anything. She couldn’t feel anything. She could barely breathe.

Luke ripped the section of the railing he had crushed and yanked it off the rest. “Fuck,” he shouted as he tossed it down into the server farm. 

“Everybody needs to calm down,” Coin stated. 

“Calm down?” Luke shot at her. “Did you not just see that footage?” 

Trish pushed her head forcefully back against the lower metal railing and squeezed her eyes shut. 

Hogarth sighed while shooting an annoyed glance to Coin. “What she means is don’t let this footage get to you?” 

Kitty gazed from the exasperated Luke to the anxious looking Trish on the floor before she turned her gaze to Hogarth. “I think it is a little too late for that. And how are we supposed to not?” 

“It was easy to find,” Daisy chimed in as she stood from the computer station. 

“Too easy,” Beetee said as he turned his wheelchair around. 

Daisy nodded at him. “They wanted us to find this.” she said peering at Luke and Trish. 

Luke was about to rip another part of the railing away but Kitty placed her hands on his arm and his past right through it. He grumbled at her annoyed and tried to push her away, which turned into his hands just passing through her a few times until he gave up. 

Trish wiped her tears away from her still closed eyes. She tried to picture Jessica in her mind and she saw the hardened, determined look she gave her before she jumped out of that hovercraft and back into the action to save people because it was the right thing to do. 

“Then we need to give them something to find,” Trish stated slowly opening her eyes. “Send them the District 12 propo.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish struggles to get the footage of Jessica out of her mind, while Jessica struggles to ignore footage of Pasty Walker.

Trish collided forcefully with the padded floor in the level 20 training room. She laid there for a moment and groaned in pain. Her mind flashed back to seeing Jessica screaming in pain in that footage.

Trish clenched her teeth and grunted as she crawled to her feet and charged at her opponent. She unloaded all her best Krav Maga moves and ended with throwing him to the ground. But, it still wasn't enough to get the memory out of her mind.

She jumped down on top of him and started repeatedly punching him in the side of the face. Pete grunted and tried to push her off. He turned his skin metal hoping it would stop her. He didn't want to hurt her again but he was getting to the point that he might have to. He figured her fist colliding with his metal skin would make her stop but it didn't even slow her down.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Kitty yelled as she spotted them and ran over with Luke.

He grabbed Trish around the waist and pulled her off Pete. Luke took a few steps back and held Trish off the ground as she struggled against him.

"Sweet Christmas, Trish," he called as he set her down and held her shoulders tightly. Her hand was bleeding along with her nose and her arms and chest were covered in splotches that were definitely going to become bruises.

Trish continued to struggle as she panted heavily.

"Cool off," Luke commanded.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" Kitty questioned Pete and the small group of super recruits, who were crowded around where the fight had taken place.

"She asked us to," Pete told her as he woozily got to his feet.

"To what? Fight to the death?" Kitty inquired.

All the recruits were peering down at the floor, looking guilty.

Trish grunted through clenched teeth and shoved Luke away. He let her as he saw the tears lining her face. He stood back for a moment, letting her walk away from him.

She raised her hands to her head and took a few deep breathes trying to calm herself. She hadn't noticed what she had done to her hand until she tried to lace her fingers and felt blood. She lowered her hand and stared at it.

 _God damnit, Trish. What the fuck happened?_ she imagined Jessica saying if she had been there. She had been trying to not think about her. It hadn't been a choice to imagine her. It wasn't even just her imagining. Jess had said exactly that to her as she looked at her hand, looking similar to how it did then because her mother had slammed it in the oven door.

Trish covered her face with her other hand and struggled to suppress her tears.

"What are you doing, Trish?" Luke asked as he stood behind her.

She lowered her hand and crossed her arms over her chest but couldn't bring herself to turn around and look at him. "I'm trying to get that footage out of my head."

Luke hung his head.

"They could be doing it again, right now," Trish said, stating her fear that had been plaguing her every waking moment for the past two days, which had been almost all of them since she had barely slept.

"I know," he grumbled sadly.

"What are we even doing here? We are hiding underground on the other side of the nation, while they...while they still have her," she struggled to say as she turned to Luke.

"Getting the shit beat out of you isn't going to help," Luke stated firmly.

Trish shrugged. "I know that."

Luke nodded. Trish peered up at him and they made eye contract both feeling helpless and scared.

"Why don't you start training with us?" Luke suggested. "Like actual training, not just helping out."

Trish scoffed, sadly. "I'm not a super hero."

"No," Luke said, managing a smile. "But there is going to have to be a rescue mission in our future and Jess' team is going to demand to be a part of it. I know the same goes for you."

Trish smiled at him and nodded, feeling the first glimmer of hope since she saw that video.

Jessica groaned in pain and was barely able to scream. They had pumped her full of that paralyzing drug, strapped her to the table and placed some sticky pads with wires attached all over her skin.

At first they asked her questions. When they didn't get the answers they wanted, one of the guards would push the button on the control in his hand and Jessica would be in blinding pain. It took her a few times to realize why the pain felt familiar. It was whatever energy draining power that Marie had. Jess thought she might have been captured too during the arena escape, but she hadn't seen her. They must have had her somewhere else as they figured out how to weaponize her power.

During the brief moment of rest between the questions ending and the projection screen turning on, Jessica hoped she wasn't dead.

That had been three days ago.

She groaned in pain again and had a moment of relief when she remembered Patsy was not in the next scene of _It's Patsy on Patrol_. Of course, she couldn't be that lucky. The scene was cut out and Jessica briefly caught a glimpse of Patsy before she spoke and the guard hit the button activating the pain pads.

Jessica knew what they were trying to do and it wasn't going to work. The guards had started playing all of Trish's television and movie appearances in chronological order, like some kind of demonic Patsy Walker marathon. Every time she spoke, the pain pads would have Jess screaming and convulsing on the table. Well, the convulsing had gone away. After three days of it, she could barely move.

 _This is a waste of time_ , Jess kept thinking to her.

The Capital was trying to get her to associate pain with Trish. But they didn't know Trish like she did. The voice wasn't her real voice, not for any of her characters and certainly not Patsy.

During the first 11 episodes of different television shows and the first two _It's Patsy_ movies, Jessica had been able to keep up that persona in her head. This whole plan was going to fail.

 _It's more annoying than anything_ , she had thought. _I guess I'll just have to stop watching Trish's movies._

But her cockiness started to crumble away between the second and third _It's Patsy_ movie.

 _It's still not her. Fucking listen to it, Jones. It ain't her_ , Jessica told herself as her fears rose when she heard the late night show host announce his next guest.

Jess had to keep telling herself to notice the minimal differences in Trish's voice as she sat on three different late night show couches doing press for _It's Patsy on Patrol_.

She didn't even attempt to look at the screen. It would have been the glimpse of the real Trish that she so desperately needed but she figured the guard was waiting for it so he could press his pain button.

She was relieved when the sleazy beach patrol _It's Patsy_ installment started. Physically, it was just as painful but psychologically it was easier than Trish's first big press tour.

"Shut down the footage, solider."

Jessica was breathing heavily as her entire body throbbed with pain. She tried to lift her head to look at the guard and the other person who had stepped into the room.

 _Fuck_ , she failed to say aloud as absurdly bright fluorescent lights switched on and filled with room with beaming white light. Jessica squeezed her eyes shut and struggled to turn her head to the side. It was the first time she had been in a normally lit room in four months.

"You should really dim those," a women said.

Her request was ignored.

"I am here for the good of the prisoner, aren't I?" the woman replied.

"You are here because the president trusts you, but this is my facility and my authority will not be questioned," the new guard said. "I assume you have been informed what will happen to you and your family if you speak to the prisoner or if you repeat this to anyone."

"I have," the woman said.

Jessica could hear her walking over but she couldn't get her eyes to open. She sounded familiar but Jessica couldn't place who the hell she was.

"What have you been giving her?" the woman asked.

Jessica tried to open her eyes but the light was too bright and she closed them again.

"Is this IV being filled with the standard nutrition replacement?" the woman asked.

"Plus extra fluids," the guard replied uniformly.

"Breaks?"

"For an hour every four," he told her.

Jessica tried to reply and call out the dick for lying. There had been no breaks. But, she realized she couldn't move her tongue or mouth.

_Fuck._

The woman and the guard walked away and after she heard the door close the lights went out and the video started again.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck._

She groaned in pain but was unable to scream as Trish delivered her next line of dialogue.

Trish looked up from Katniss' younger sister who was applying stitches to her injured hand when she heard the heels stop clicking against the tile a few feet away. She met eyes with who she expected to see.

"What are you doing here, Hogarth?" Trish asked her annoyed.

"I just had a conversation with a rather concerned Mr. Cage," Hogarth stated as she placed a hand on her hip.

Trish sighed. "Yes, I tried to beat the shit out of a kid with metal skin," she shot at Hogarth.

Trish assumed she moved her hand too much as she tried to rise it to Hogarth, but Prim didn't say anything.

"Why do you care?" Trish questioned.

Hogarth smirked. "I promised a friend of ours that I would look after you."

Trish fidgeted uncomfortably. "I don't need your protection anymore."

Hogarth nodded. "I have learned that over the years, but--"

"She'd still kill you if you let anything happen to me?" Trish hissed with a mixture of compassion and annoyance.

"Precisely," Hogarth replied. "But it seems she shouldn't be worrying about you anymore. I've been told you've joined the super recruits."

Trish scoffed. "It was Luke's idea."

"I'm glad you did," she replied seriously, making eye contact with Trish. "I like having soldiers I can trust."

Before Trish could reply, Hogarth turned away from her to look at someone else.

"Miss Hogarth, there is a call in command for you," one of Coin's soldiers said as he stood a few paces back from her.

"Me?" Hogarth asked.

The solider nodded. "I was told to fetch Miss Walker as well."

Prim finished taping Trish's hand. "You're free to go."

Hogarh and Trish followed the solider down into command. Once they stepped inside, Hogarth took a few slow steps toward the projection on the wall.

"Wendy," Hogarth said, with the slightest hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Jeri," she replied, sounding much more happy to see her. "I know where she is."


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish and Hogarth get information about Jessica from an untrusting Wendy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow amid all the craziness I created, I was able to write a fluff chapter about Hogarth and Wendy's relationship and Trish, Finnick and Annie's friendship. I just let this chapter happen, so here is a dose of levity I guess.

"What do you mean you know where she is?" Coin asked Wendy skeptically as she took a step toward the screen.

Wendy peered unsurely at Coin and then back at Hogarth, who sighed and then peered at Coin.

"I believe this call was for me," Hogarth questioned. 

Coin glared at her.

"It is," Plutarch answered from Coin's side. "We'll give you a moment of privacy."

"Clear the room," Coin commanded, angrily to the handful of people who were in command. 

They headed for the exit and the adjoining meeting rooms. Hogarth peered over her shoulder and nodded for Trish to stay.

"I'm sorry, Jeri," Wendy said when it was only the three of them. "I don't know how safe it is for me to be talking to you."

"I remember how they work," Hogarth replied.

"And these 13 people?" Wendy asked. "You trust them more?"

Hogarth shook her head. "I haven't decided."

Wendy nodded and started to smile.

"I'm assume this isn't a social call," Hogarth quickly replied. "You have something to tell me?"

Wendy scoffed at her. "Right. Straight to business."

Wendy peered around the darkened room she appeared to be in. "I know where they are keeping one of the captured victors."

"Which one?" Hogarth inquired.

"Jessica Jones."

Trish gasped slightly and took a step forward until she was shoulder to shoulder with Hogarth. "Where?" Trish nervously blurted.

"The tribute center," she told them looking anxiously from Trish to Hogarth.

"No, that can't be," Trish stated as her heart sunk. "That footage was a jail cell, torture chamber thing."

"In the basement," Wendy added with a nod.

"There are holding cells in the basements of all the tribute centers," Hogarth explained to Trish. "It is where they keep the mutts before they release them in the arena."

Trish huffed in disgust. "So they are treating her like a mutt when they aren't torturing her?" she started sarcastically but then nearly chocked on her raising emotions.

The two older women peered at Trish as she turned her back to both of them and looked to the floor and struggled for breathe.

Hogarth bit her lip angrily. "Which tribute center?" she demanded of Wendy.

"The newest one," she replied. "I don't think they are going to let her out of the torture chamber," she said cautiously, her eyes briefly darting to Trish.

"When...um when did you see her?" Trish asked as she slowly turned around.

"This morning," Wendy replied. 

"Any idea how long she had been in there? We received footage of her two days ago," Hogarth stated.

Wendy shook her head. 

Trish had so many other questions about Jessica and how she was doing but she couldn't bring herself to ask any of them. She was too afraid of what the answer might be. 

"If I want to continue in my position, I can't be made a part of this, Jeri," Wendy said seriously to her wife.

Hogarth nodded and paced for a moment. "I'll speak with Beetee--"

"Beetee Latier, from District 3?"

Hogarth nodded. "He has been trying to trace the videos back to their source. I can have him tell the others he found where they came from."

"Tell Daisy too," Trish added.

Hogarth peered at her for a moment. "Are you sure we can trust her?"

Trish nodded. "She's a member of Jess' team. They will do anything to keep her safe."

"I will too, " Wendy chimed in.

Trish peered up at the screen uncertainly. "How do we know we can trust you?"

"She has helped you before," Hogarth stated. 

"Well not you," she clarified.

Hogarth smirked at her wife. "She doesn't see it like that."

Wendy smiled. "I remember when we used to be that in love."

Hogarth sighed and looked to the floor before turning her gaze back to the screen and Wendy, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. 

"You will help? When the times comes?" Hogarth asked.

Wendy nodded. "Of course, I just can't now they threatened--"

"Your siblings?" Hogarth asked with a hint of real concern. 

Wendy nodded.

"Are they all in 6?" 

"Last I heard from them."

"It has been safe there. If the situation changes I will get them out," Hogarth told her.

"If I help you?" Wendy asked with a scoff. 

Hogarth was silent for a moment and pressed her lips tightly together. "Yes," she simply stated. 

Wendy quickly snapped around at a banging noise behind her. 

"I have to go, Jeri," she told her firmly.

Hogarh weakly nodded.

The video cut to black.

"What are we going to tell the others?" Trish inquired. 

They knew where Jessica was now. She didn't want to delay the rescue mission a second longer.

"She's a high ranking medical officer in the Capital. She heard rumors about Jessica and the others. I'll talk to Beetee and Daisy later," Hogarth told her former tribute.

"We need to start working on the rescue plan," Trish demanded. "We have no idea how long they have been..." Trish jerked her head away from Hogarth and sniffed away her tears. 

"We will be working on it tomorrow night," Hogarth stated as she left command in search of Beetee.

Around noon the next day, Trish struggled to keep herself flexed on the pull up bar in her bedroom as she started laughing. 

"Damnit, Annie," Trish replied as her arms shook but she managed to hang on. 

Finnick had somehow managed to keep a straight face, despite a wide grin, as he held his chin over the other pull up bar. 

They had decided to run lines for _Together We Die_ during their workout. Annie had offered to read for all the other characters and her incredibly low, grumbly voice for Tough Male Soldier Two nearly had Trish in tears. 

"'Where did you pick up this little piece of ass, Collins?'"Annie repeated in the same voice.

Trish shook her head to stop herself from laughing. "'Special forces training,'" Trish replied using her Lance Corporal Beaufoy voice. 

"Beaufoy swipes out Tough Solider's legs. Collins throws her a knife, which she catches and uses to stab Tough Solider in the chest," Annie said in a normal voice, reading the stage directions. 

"'Nice work, kid,'" Finnick stated with a smirk in his Sgt. Collins voice. 

"Collins extends a hand to Beaufoy..." Annie paused for a moment as she flipped to the next page of the script "...which she takes and is pulled to her feet."

"'Kid? You know I could have done that without you?'" Trish replied cockily. 

"Collins gazes at her longing, for a moment too long," Annie read. 

Finnick cleared his throat. "'Yeah, of course. So where is this base of yours?'"

"Beaufoy takes Collins hand and leads him out of frame. End scene 15," Annie read. 

Finnick exhaled and released himself from his bar. He groaned in relief as his feet hit the ground. 

"Uh, was that scene longer than I remember?" he asked. 

"Injury leaves the superstar stuck in the stars," Annie muttered as she raised her left hand and covered half her face. 

Trish released herself from the bar landed on her right leg and then fell forward onto her hands. She turned over and climbed to her feet.

"I am not stuck," Trish told Annie with a smile. 

She tapped her finger against her temple a few times. "Pretty boy catch?" she said quickly. 

"Hey!" Finnick called, throwing his arms up in his defense. 

Trish laughed as she sat beside Annie on her bed. "Yeah, he should have caught me," Trish replied.

"Better real fiancé than fake boyfriend," Annie joked.

Finnick leaned in and kissed her before he fell back onto the chair in front of them. 

Trish laughed and grinned at Finnick. "I'm glad you aren't with some diva who finds me threatening."

"I cannot wait until you get a chick love interest in some movie, so I can watch Jessica get all jealous," Finnick said excitedly. 

Trish tensed as soon as he finished speaking. Annie instantly grabbed her hand and held it tightly. 

"Aw shit, Trish. I'm sorry I forgot," Finnick apologized.

Trish heard a laugh in the doorway and turned to see Cressida, with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face as she leaned against the doorframe. 

"Well, if we ever get The Untitled Pasty Walker project off the ground," the director said with a smirk.

Trish shook and squeezed Annie's head. 

"Capital can't..." Annie said before her attention was drawn to something in the air that was invisible to Trish. 

Trish saw the pained look in her eyes and placed a hand gently on the side of her face. Annie peered at it uncertainty for a moment before meeting Trish's eyes again.

"...hold her forever. The strong of strength and will always make it home," Annie told her.

Trish nodded at her with a smile. "Thank you," she said, just above a whisper. 

Trish turned to Cressida about to ask how her trip to District 8 with Katniss and her propo team had gone.

But, a District 13 solider appeared beside Cressida. "Ma'am," he said to her. "You, Miss Walker and Mr. Odair are wanted in command."

"Thank you," Cressida told him annoyed. "We will be down in a moment."

"Why are we being called?" Trish inquired of the solider as she rose from the bed.

"Miss Hogarth's command about the captured victors," the solider replied. 

Trish smiled to herself. It seemed Hogarth was just as impatience about getting Jessica back as she was.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Planning Jessica's rescue doesn't go as smoothly as Trish thought it would.

"Is there another video?" Kitty asked anxiously of Hogarth as she stood among her and the others in command. 

Trish raised her eyebrows at her concerned as she walked over to them with Finnick and Cressida. That thought hadn't even crossed her mind. She had been so excited about knowing where Jessica was she had allowed herself to forget for a few minutes that she was still in the Capital's grasp.

Her remembrance helped her fake her concerned surprise when Coin announced they had found Jessica. Beetee chimed in explaining how he had traced the video to the tribute center. 

"So when are we going to get her?" Luke questioned from Kitty's side. 

"It is not that simple," Coin stated.

"What?" Trish blurted at her shocked as Hogarth turned toward Coin angrily.

"We cannot just send a team into a secured Capital building," Coin added.

"The hell we can," Luke shot back.

"We aren't-we can't leave her there," Trish added.

"We have to wait for the right moment," Coin stated.

"Yeah, which is as soon as we can get our armor on," Finnick stated.

"Everyone relax," Plutarch said calmly.

"Please say you mean we have to put some planning into this," Hogarth demanded of Coin.

Coin gazed at her and was quiet. 

"Oh god," Trish said quietly to herself as she exhaled painfully. 

"She does not have advantageous worth to us," Coin replied uniformly.

"Yes, she does," Luke replied forcefully.

"Regardless of her worth, you're going to leave a prisoner behind?" Finnick added. 

"Finding her could lead us to the two other captives as well," Kitty added. 

"Plutarch, you cannot be on board with this?" Cressida questioned him. 

"We need to get her back, I am not arguing with that," Plutarch replied evenly. "But I do agree that we should wait for the right opportunity."

"And what would that be precisely?" Hogarth questioned. "We have reliable intel of her location. We should retrieve her before she is moved."

"I am the commander here. I will decide when the time is right," Coin stated.

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Trish heard Luke grunt as he turned away from her angrily. Trish peered over her shoulder and saw Cressida and Finnick looking equally as distressed.

"You can't stop us," Kitty directed seriously at Coin. "We are the strongest team in this district."

"Is that a threat, Miss Pryde?" Coin questioned.

"The Capital has our commander," Kitty replied.

"We don't need you to get her back," Luke added. 

Trish peered over at them nervously and then slowly looked to Coin. They had reached a standstill and everyone was peering at each other intensely waiting for the next threatening comment but it did not happen.

The Panem theme started to blare out of Daisy's station.

"Incoming mandatory broadcast," she announced.

"Send it to the main screen," Coin replied.

They all turned to the projection screen on the wall as the Panem seal faded out and Johanna appeared.

"Ah shit," Finnick breathed quietly. 

Trish comfortingly placed a hand on his shoulder. 

Johanna looked bad, even worse than Jessica had. She was in another ridiculously fancy Capital gown with far too much makeup on her face. 

Trish and Cressida locked eyes. They both knew what filming tricks were being used. 

"That makeup," Cressida stated.

Finnick quickly turned to Trish, his eyes demanding an explanation.

"She's been beaten," Trish stated softly. "The makeup is covering that part of her face is swollen."

"The eye makeup doesn't quite match," Cressida continued. "Her left eye must be bruised."

_"So, Johanna Mason, two time Hunger Games tribute, what do you have to say to the rebels now?" Cesar Flickerman asked with an oddly friendly grin._

"Is that Snow's mansion?" Luke asked.

Trish nodded. 

_"I would tell them to lay down their weapons. This fighting is pointless. They should just quit," Johanna said in a monotone._

_"What changed your mind?" Cesar questioned._

"How can anyone be buying this?" Kitty thought aloud.

"They haven't seen enough to know beyond what the Capital is showing them," Trish replied.

"I'm in," Beetee announced excitedly as he turned and smiled at them.

"That is about to change," Cressida whispered excitedly to Trish.

"Send through the District 8 footage," Coin instructed.

Trish peered over at Cressida, who was widely smiling and shrugged. Trish looked back to the screen. It crackled and looked as if it was going to cut out before footage of Katniss and Gale, mostly, fighting off Capital aircrafts overtook the screen.

"Shit," Luke stated in disbelief. 

"I didn't know we could do this," Finnick added.

Hogarth smirked. "Neither did we until about five seconds ago."

The rebel footage crackled out and was replaced with the image of a confused and bewildered looking Johanna. Cesar struggled to form his next question. Before he could, the rebel footage made it through again and Katniss was kneeling before the flaming ruins of a hospital and Capital aircrafts. 

The video crackled back to the original broadcast.

"Dammit," Daisy yelled.

"We lost it," Beetee clarified to the room.

Cesar struggled to formulate something to say. 

_"They know your location. Diminishing sunshine," Johanna yelled at the camera._

Finnick jolted a step forward. 

Johanna looked as if was she bracing for an attacker to hit her as the video cut to black. 

"What was that?" Trish asked Finnick. 

He turned around slowly, looking anxiously at her. "'Diminishing sunshine' it is a warning we use when something bad has happened with An--it doesn't matter. Something bad is about to happen."

Everyone looked toward Coin, Plutarch and Hogarth.

"We haven't ran an air raid drill in a while," Coin stated. "Activate the alarm," she told the solider to her right. 

He ran into one of the adjacent meeting rooms and a deafening siren started going off.

"See you all on level 40," Coin said as she left the room with a handful of soldiers and District 13 workers. 

Everyone else hang back for a moment with a mixture of confusion and concern. Then everyone quickly filed out. Everyone headed down except for Finnick and Trish who headed up. 

"What are you doing?" Finnick asked as he ran up the steps, the elevator was far too busy.

"What are you doing?" Trish replied, her voice cracking as she placed a little too much pressure on her left leg. 

"The sirens are too loud," Finnick explained. "For Annie. What is your excuse?"

"If everything gets blow to bits and this rescue plot doesn't happen, Jess' jacket will be the only thing I have left of her. I'm going to get it," Trish replied. 

Finnick nodded quickly.

"Don't tell me it is stupid, I know."

He laughed slightly. "I don't think so."

They both stumbled through the door to level 12 as everything around them shook. They sprinted to their rooms. 

Trish frantically pushed her down open and reached for the jacket, which was hanging on a hook the bed. She yelped and jumped backward as a chuck on plaster fell off the ceiling and just barely collided with her arm. She seized the jacket, threw it on and stumbled out of her room as everything shook again.

"Shit!" Finnick yelled as he yanked Annie out of the way as the lights above them exploded and glass rained down. He started to sprint toward the stairs. Annie winced uncomfortably and struggled to keep up. "Trish, come on!"

Trish reached them and grabbed Annie's other hand as the three of them reached the stairs. Finnick forced the door open and ushered them through before he started rushing down the stairs after them. 

The sprinkler system kicked on once they had reached about level 30.

"Where is this fucking bunker?" Finnick yelled over the sprinklers and the sirens.

"Level 40," Trish yelled back at him. 

Once they got closer to the bunker doors, Trish saw Katniss and Prim rushing toward the doors at Gale ran after them. She also saw a few flashes of blue and black mixed with some red shimming lights as people disappeared through the almost closed bunker doors. 

"Kurt!" Trish yelled as they were about three spirals of stairs above him. 

He spotted them and appeared at her side. Trish gave Annie's hand to him and pushed him back toward Finnick.

"Get them to safety!" Trish instructed.

He nodded quickly and the three of them vanished. Trish continued down the water-covered stairs. She jerked her left leg strangely as she painfully landed on it. It caused her right boot to slip and she started tumbling down the stairs. 

She felt someone grab her hand and she was transported to three different locations before she collided painfully with the concrete floor inside the bunker. She heaved and nearly vomited.

"Sorry," Clarice stated softly as she knelt beside her.

Trish groaned and pushed herself in a sitting position. She shook her head at the girl. "Don't be sorry. Thank you."

She nodded and got to her feet. Trish did the same and peered around the bunker. It was filled with about 500 bunk beds. Trish was walking through the rows trying to find someone she knew when a 13 solider stopped her and said Coin wanted to see her. She followed him into a miniature version of command.

The solider closed the door behind her. Trish peered over her shoulder at it concerned as she heard him lock it.

"It is just a precaution, Miss Walker," Coin told her.

Trish tensed up for a moment as she realized it was only the two of them in the locked room.

"This room as more re-enforced steel than the rest of the bunker," she said uniformly.

Trish shook her head at her. "Why am I here?"

"I am beginning to think I misspoke earlier," Coin stated.

Trish raised an eyebrow at her. "About what?"

"The usefulness of the Capital captives," she informed her. 

Trish scoffed at her in disgust again. "I only care about your change of heart, if you are willing to let us go save them."

"I am," Coin replied. "Johanna Mason was able to warn us about this attack and I saw the power Jessica Jones' team holds. We will need her so they will be willing to fight for us.""

Maybe it was the nausea from her transport with Clarice, but Trish felt sick again. They had no idea what Marie's condition was, Johanna was at least being beaten and starved and Jessica was being tortured, but Coin only wanted to save them because she found them useful. 

All Trish could manage in reply was a nod as she dug her hands deep into the pockets of Jessica's jacket. 

"Very well," Coin stated. "I will summon all of you in the morning."

Trish weakly nodded as she turned. She knocked on the door for the solider to unlock it and let her out into the seas of people and bunk beds. 

As she walked through the rows again, she noticed the beds had level numbers running down them and room numbers across. She navigated to the level 12 beds and made her way to hers. 

She sat on the bottom bunk, crossed her arms tightly across her chest and leaned forward and closed her eyes. She could hear Finnick comforting Annie across from her. Everything shook and she heard Katniss mutter something to her sister a few bunks down. 

She heard a familiar click on the floor and a sigh as someone sat beside her. She opened her eyes and turned to her other side, surprised to see Pam sitting there. Trish turned to Hogarth on her other side.

"Coin's agreed to the rescue," Trish stated.

"What changed her mind?" Hogarth asked with a skeptical tone.

"She finds them useful now," Trish told her with disgust.

Hogarth rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"Well, at least we will be getting them back," Pam stated with a hint of optimism.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The resistance finalizes the rescue plan as Trish struggles to focus on anything apart from getting Jessica back.

_You need to go._

Jessica slammed her head back against the metal table as the pain overtook her entire body.

_Please, Jess._

Jessica winced at the pain as her back arched but she couldn't get herself to scream. It was as if all the power had been tortured out of her vocal cords.

_I don't think I am going to make it out of here and someone is going to find us eventually._

The pain coursed through her again and she winced as tears lined her face. They were getting closer and closer to the one piece of footage Jessica wasn't sure she could fight against. She was already beginning to associate Trish's actual voice, after seven interviews and nearly 10 hours of Hunger Games footage, with the pain that blinded her every time she heard the voice of her dreams speak.

She silently screamed, winced and hoped she could find a way out of this before they played Trish's victor interview.

Trish awoke screaming and throwing the coverings and pillow of her new District 13 bed onto the floor of her room. Level 12 had been nearly destroy by the Capital bombing so everyone had been reassigned to level 22.

She shuttered at her door being forced open as Finnick and Annie ran inside.

"It's fine," Trish told them. "I'm fine. It's only a nightmare."

Once they all realized there was no danger, Trish started to laugh. Finnick was wearing only ill-fitting long johns and holding his trident at his side. Annie was standing anxiously behind him wearing only the shirt that matched her fiancés pants.

"Overreacted," Annie simply stated.

"Good observance," Finnick replied, lowering his trident. "Sorry, Trish."

"It's fine," Trish said with a shaky voice as she looked away, starting to cry. Her mind kept flashing back to the dream she had of Jessica being tortured. It wasn't the real Tribute Center, but in the dream it was, and as much as Trish tried to make her way to the cells too many things stopped her.

Annie seemed to watch something invisible float through the air until she met eyes with Trish. She placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Can I stay with you?" Annie asked.

"Uh," Trish replied awkwardly as she peered over to Finnick, who smiled and nodded. "Yes, I'd like you to," Trish replied.

Trish turned toward the wall and Annie laid beside her and placed an arm around her. Somehow, Trish had no idea how, it was only out of comfort. Finnick got into the bed across from them and pulled the covers around himself. All the District 13 rooms had two beds in them, Trish hadn't really worked out why.

"Jessica will be back soon," Annie stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. So much so, Trish believed her for a moment and nodded as she fell back asleep.

Trish shook her head and blinked a few times to try to get herself to focus as she realized she hadn’t heard anything Plutarch had said for the last few minutes as he addressed everyone in command. 

He was waving his hand around a hologram of the tribute center, where Jessica and possibly the other prisoners were being held. Trish had stopped listening to him after he pointed out the room he thought Jessica was being kept it. She had just stared at it for a moment but when she started seeing flashes of that torture video again, she distracted herself by imagining the quickest route in and out of that room and to the roof. 

She turned her gaze to him. They were only a day away from going in and possibly getting Jessica back. She needed to pay attention. 

“The air filtration system would be subpar at best on this level,” he said, as he hit something on the control panel and the other levels of the building reappeared. 

“We could use gas to knock out the guards,” Coin added. 

“Would that be bad for Jessica and the others?” Luke asked. 

“Possibly,” Simmons answered. 

“But, it can’t be worse than what the bastards are already doing to them,” Kitty added. 

“That is true,” Simmons replied. 

Hogarth nodded with her arms crossed over her chest. “Drop in the gas canisters, knock out the guards and then the team repels down and gets them out,” she stated, summing up the plan. 

“Extraction?” Coin asked. 

Trish noticed Luke, Kitty and Daisy shutter slightly. Hogarth took a deep breath. 

“Same as before?” Luke asked looking to Kitty. 

She nodded. “We’ll have Kurt and Clarice on standby on the roof. They’ll pop down to get everyone out when they are ready.” 

“None of that priority bullshit this time,” Trish stated. Most people looked at her. She had been quiet for a while. “You guys ranked us by priority last time, didn’t you?” Trish asked looking at Hogarth. 

She gave a small nod. “We did.” 

“I don’t want to do that again,” Trish stated. “That was now we got into this situation,” she said. She felt eyes on her from across the table and looked over to see Katniss, who had been even quieter than her, peering at her intensely. She nodded in understanding. 

“You guys should break into teams beforehand and give each team a priority,” Gale suggested from Katniss’ side. 

“I was thinking the same,” Kitty added. 

Hogarth quickly took a step toward the control panel nearest her and Coin before the president could. She hit a few buttons and the photos of the captured appeared above the building hologram. Trish took a deep breath as she looked at the translucent photo of Jessica angrily staring out at her. She almost smiled for a moment. It was the headshot the Capital made them take before their first games. 

The image of an indifferent looking Johanna floated beside her. The third as a candid photo of Marie cropped into a headshot. The next three were blank. From a mixture of rebel intel and heat signatures from drones Plutarch could still access, they knew three others were being kept in the cages under the tribute center. It was assumed one was Enobaria from District 2, who they knew was still alive during the arena escape though she hadn’t been part of the extraction plan. They had no idea on the other two. 

“Could your team work in pairs with the District 13 soldiers?” Hogarth directed at Kitty and Luke. 

Kitty nodded reluctantly. 

“Only if Trish and I can be paired together,” Luke asked of Coin. 

The rescue team was going to be made up of five super recruits, in addition to the transporters, four District 13 soldiers and Trish. For some reason, Coin refused to acknowledge her as a member of the super recruits though the team’s commanders had said as much. 

Trish nodded at him in response and then quickly turned to Hogarth and Coin. “With Jess as our priority.”

Hogarth nodded at her. 

“Very well,” Coin stated. “And the others?” 

Trish felt Katniss’ eyes on her again as she girl peered at her anxiously through Johanna’s photo. 

“Kitty, you and the best District 13 guy should have Johanna,” Trish stated. “She is most likely to have the next highest security.” 

Kitty nodded and started working out the rest of the priority assignments. 

Katniss looked nervously at Trish, who tried to nod in encouragement. She had briefly spoken with Katniss earlier at breakfast before Finnick and Annie arrived. She had been angry that she had been deemed too important and too recognizable to go on the rescue mission. 

“This is bullshit,” Katniss grumbled down at her tray. “I’m not the movie star,” she stated as she jammed her fork into the mushy yellow-ish substance that was apparently scrambled eggs. 

Trish shook her head as she dropped pieces of her banana-like fruit into her oatmeal-like substance. “I’m only a movie star at this point. You’re the Mockingjay. That is more important.” 

Katniss scoffed at her annoyed. Trish figured Katniss would be angry about being excluded from the rescue mission but she thought she would be pleased about being sent to fight in Johanna’s home district of 7 with Gale and Finnick. Sure, Cressida was going too to film the entire thing and Beetee was going to broadcast it during the rescue as a distraction but Trish didn’t see that as all bad. 

“She will not be left behind this time, Katniss,” Trish told her. “I promise.”

Trish shook her head again and blinked until she focused less on Jessica’s rescue and more on what was happening in command. 

“What time is this all happening?” Cressida asked across the table of Coin and Plutarch. 

“14 hours from now, at midnight,” Coin replied. 

“Everyone meet in the hanger at 10 p.m.,” Plutarch stated. 

After a briefly conversation with Kitty and Luke about a super recruit meeting in a few hours, Trish started heading for the stairs and back up to her room. 

“Hey,” she heard Cressida call from behind her. 

“Hey,” Trish replied as the director reached her side. “I was going to ask you how it went in District 8, but I could tell from that footage it went rather well.” 

Cressida nodded with a smile as she held the stairway door open for Trish. “It did,” she replied as they started walking up side-by-side. “Katniss is good. Not really as good as you, but still good.” 

Trish smiled and laughed slightly. “Give it enough time and I’m sure you could train her like the rest of your stars,” she teased. 

“Not like you,” Cressida said sensually as she nudged Trish toward the wall of the landing between levels and pressed herself against her. Before Trish could react, Cressida had her lips on hers and her arms snaking around her like they used to. Trish let herself give in for moment as she let herself feel the comfort she once did in her friend’s affection. 

Then she remembered how things had changed and pushed Cressida away. She stumbled back a few steps and then peered at her confused. 

“The fuck, Trish?” Cressida asked offended. 

Trish took a deep breath with her back still against the wall. “It was one time, Cressida.” 

She scoffed and swooped her hair back into place. “It was much more than one time.” 

Trish exhaled uneasily. “Jess isn’t dead anymore.” 

Cressida peered at her desperately and then turned away from her shaking her head. “That wasn’t all it was.” 

“You were part of the act,” Trish replied. “You know that.” 

Cressida gazed at her intensely for a moment. Trish shook as she knew she could see right through her lie. “Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that, Trish,” Cressida hissed, angrily as she continued up the stairs. 

Once she was out of sight, Trish slid down the wall and sat with her knees pulled into her chest. She peered up at the concrete ceiling and exhaled slowly. She had to remind herself that getting Jessica back was her first step, then she would worry about her forgiving her for what had happened during their time apart.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish and the rest of the resistance reach the Capital to free the captured tributes.

Trish adjusted her gas mask over her face and pulled the thin black hood over her head. 

“Three minutes out,” Coin said over the comms from back in command. 

Trish picked up her goggles and pulled them over her eyes. They were mostly for protection. Simmons had said the knock-out gas could cause eye discomfort. They also had night-vision capability, but everyone hoped that wouldn’t be needed. 

“Escape Team, you are in place?” Hogarth asked over the comms from the upper level of the hovercraft that was flying to the tribute center in stealth mode. 

“We are,” Kitty replied as the head of the District 13 soldiers nodded at her. 

Trish holstered the gun the District 13 soldiers insisted she take on her hip. She wasn’t planning on using it, even if they were attacked by Capital guards. She was good with guns. But, she was better with knifes and she had a large one slung across her back, one on her thigh and two clipped to her belt. 

She would have found some humor in the fact her skills with knifes was in thanks to the Capital and now she was more eager than ever to use it against them. But, she was too nervous about this plan to think of anything else than the floor plan of the bottom floor of the tribute center. She couldn’t get the image of the hologram out of her mind. She knew it was probably for the best, she had it all memorized now and knew exactly how to get to Jessica, but the image still haunted her. 

She pulled on the straps of her body armor to stop herself from shaking. Everyone was standing around the circular hatch of the hovercraft, waiting to be told when it was safe for them to repel down and into the tribute center. 

“We look like a bunch of fucking ninjas,” Daisy complained into the dead silence. 

“With breathing problems?” Bobby added. 

Luke stifled a laugh as Trish managed to smile. 

“Calm down everyone,” Kitty told them, trying not to smile. “We are almost there.” 

“Propo Team, what is your status?” Coin asked through the comms. 

“We have eyes on the fighting. We can engage at any time,” Cressida’s voice crackled through. 

“Engage now,” Hogarth instructed. “Better to have them already in it when we start.” 

“Agreed,” Coin added. “Escape team, you are 45 seconds out.” 

_Oh shit_ , Trish thought nervously. 

“We got this,” Kitty said to everyone. Her team smiled as she repeated what Jessica had once said to them. 

“We’ve arrived,” Hogarth announced. “Opening the hatch.” 

The lid of the hatch slid into the hovercraft and left a hole in the floor that looked down on to the glass ceiling above the lobby of the tribute center about 15 feet and 12 stories below. 

“Go,” Hogarth commanded. 

Luke darted toward the hatch and jumped through. He free fell toward the glass as his rope rapidly flew out of the craft after him, showing no pull on the clasp in the floor of the hovercraft. He crashed through the glass, smashing away a large portion of it. He applied pressure to repelling rope and slowed to a normal speed and then stopped himself as he hung in midair. 

He quickly unhooked the five gas canisters from his belt and one-by-one pulled out the pins and dropped them into the lobby. Beetee had hacked into the building’s controls so all air would be re-routed into the bottom level. 

“Gas deployed,” he announced. 

“Copy,” Kitty said as she jumped out next, repelling down to Luke. 

Trish saw his rope start to give as it seemed long enough for Kitty to reach him. After a few more seconds, Kitty said it was safe and the rest of the team jumped down together. 

The trip to the ground was eerily quiet and Trish was starting to feel even more nervous as she dropped through the tribute center. 

“Escape team, the door to your right once you hit the ground,” Kitty said quietly over the comms. “Stairs down to the basement. They’re clear.” 

“Propos team?” Coin asked. 

“Whoa!” Cressida called through a static-filled transmission from District 7. “We’re in the thick of it.” 

“It’s broadcasting,” Beetee added from command. 

Trish hit the fancy carpet of the darkened lobby and unhooked the rope. She unsheathed her large knife and held it at her side. She spotted Kitty standing beside the busted open door to the stairway. 

“J Team, go,” Kitty commanded as she nodded at Trish. 

Trish peered over to Luke for a moment and he reached her side. The two of them quickly made their way down the staircase. Luke grabbed the handle of the locked down to the bottom level. He peered over his shoulder at Trish and nodded. She nodded back. 

He yanked it open and starting moving forward again. Trish followed as she gazed around the barely lite corridor. She almost expected it to look purple and blue, like the hologram back in 13. But, it was just dark and grey and also humid and damp. She felt herself start to sweat as she realized where they were. She peered down the hallway and all she had to do was reach the end, turn left and go to the last door on the right to find Jessica. She sprinted in that direction. 

“Trish,” Luke called quietly after her. He huffed and then chased after her. “J Team, on the move. All looks clear.” 

“Everyone else go,” Kitty said over the comms. 

Trish didn’t take notice of anything beside her until she turned the corner and saw two Capital guards. One looked like he was trying to slump against the wall but had fallen into the hallway. Other guard was stumbling toward them as he struggled to get a gas mask over his face. 

“I got him,” Luke told her through their comms. “Keep going.” 

Trish dodged out of his way. It was simpler than she thought it would be. Luke grabbed him around the shoulders. Trish leapt over the first guard and pushed on. Luke pulled off the second's gas mask, smirked as he torn it apart and tossed the guard into the wall. He slumped down and land beside the other. 

“J2 Team has our target. Heading back,” Kitty stated over her comms. 

Trish felt a small hint of relief. They weren’t even certain Johanna would be there and she was. That had to mean Jessica would be there too. 

“Same for M Team,” Bobby said. “Heading back.” 

Trish felt her heart warm in relief for a moment before floor started to split apart below her. She stumbled and lunged forward as she drove her knife into the floor. It barely nicked the concrete but it was enough for her to hold herself for a moment and drag herself onto the normal floor. She got herself to her feet. 

“Luke?” Trish called as she turned back to see what had happened to him.

He grunted through his teeth as he hoisted himself out of the pit and onto the normal floor. 

“Are you OK?” Trish asked him. 

“Yeah, keep going,” he nodded. “We just got hit by some kind of trap,” he said over the comms as they continued down the hallway. 

“What?” Kitty blurted. “Do they know we are here?” 

“I am not seeing any indication of that,” Beetee replied. 

“J Team, did you see a control panel on the wall. It would have had a blue light,” Plutarch asked from command. 

“No,” Trish stated. 

“I might have. I’m not sure,” Luke added. 

“There was probably a safe guard. The guards know to deactivate it,” he explained. “They might know we are here.” 

“Everyone hurry,” Coin added. 

“U Teams, where are you?” Hogarth asked. 

“U1 is heading back with our target,” Daisy stated. 

“Identity?” Hogarth asked. 

“No idea,” Daisy replied. 

_Damn this hallway is longer than I remember_ , Trish thought as she continued. 

“U3 has ours,” a District 13 solider said. 

“This is U2, we are reaching ours now,” Pete said over the comms. “Shit,” he said after a moment of silence. 

“Report?” Hogarth commanded. 

“Uh, it’s Wendy Ross, the District 6 victor,” he stated. 

“Get her back to the craft, Pete,” Trish stated quickly, after Hogarth only exhaled loudly into the comms. 

Trish was nearly at the door. She grasped the handle when she did and found it locked. 

“Luke,” she called. 

He raced over to her and grasped the handle. There was a loud bang and he quickly pulled his hand away from the handle, afraid he had caused it. 

“We have company,” Beetee stated. 

“Luke, Trish, there are guards coming down the hallway to your left,” Hogarth stated. 

“I’ll fight them off. You get her,” Luke commanded down to Trish, who nodded vigorously. 

He broke the lock on the door and then sprinted to their left. 

“Is everyone back in the craft?” Hogarth commanded. 

“Everyone but Pete is back,” Clarice informed everyone.

“I’m going back for Trish and Jessica. Kurt, follow me when you are ready,” Kitty instructed. 

Trish took a step into the room. She was moving quickly until the image projected on the wall confused her so much it took away her ability to move. It was of her sitting at the base of a tree, covered in blood, with a destroyed left leg, calling out for something as the corpse of a young girl laid beside her. She knew what it was from. It was one of the final shots of her first games, but she had no idea why it was there on the wall in the middle a torture chamber in the Capital. 

She looked in front of her and saw someone strapped to a metal table. She knew from that footage that had been plaguing her nightmares for weeks that it was Jessica. She was about to rush toward her but the image on the wall turned into a video and she jumped at the sound of her own voice screaming out Jessica’s name. 

She quickly turned to the corner of the room that was lite by the glow of a monitor. A young Capital solider with a gas mask over his face, raised his shaking hands up at Trish as she threw one of her smaller knife at him. She barely missed. 

“Please,” he stated. “I’m sorry.” 

“What have you been doing to her?” she commanded of him as she pointed her large knife in his direction. 

“W-w-we’ve been showing her…” 

He stopped when a 17-year-old Trish starting wailing out of the Hunger Games footage because she thought her girlfriend had just died. 

“Turn that off,” Trish shouted at him. 

He nervously nodded and reached down toward the controls. He did pause the video, but he also grabbed his gun off the table and haphazardly fired at Trish. She grabbed her gun out of the holster and fired at him twice. The first bullet hit him in the chest and the second in the head. He fell down onto the desk. 

The solider wasn’t as good of a shot as her but he did enough damage to send Trish stumbling back toward to the wall. One bullet had grazed the side of her face and it burn through all of the gas mask and a fair amount of the skin on her cheek. He also caught her high in the left shoulder. She struggled for breathe as she felt blood cover her shoulder. After a moment of slumping against the wall, she realized her gas mask was probably useless and she needed to hurry. 

She forced herself off the wall and threw herself at the metal table. She painfully pushed herself up with her right arm. She was so disoriented and felt like she was on the brink of passing out but she had reached her. Jessica didn’t look nearly as bad as she thought she would. She looked in pain, even though she was passed out. Her shoulder looked discolored or maybe Trish was hallucinating. She saw those cords attached to her that had been a main cast member of her Jessica nightmare. Trish struggled to stand as she realized they were attached to sticky pads and started pulling them off Jessica. 

“J Team, report,” Hogarth commanded. 

Trish panted as she reached for one of the knives off her belt. She flipped it down, relieved that she had chosen the switch blade. She slashed at the leather cuff that was holding Jess’ wrist to the table. She reached for the one on her ankle. 

“Fighting off the last of the guards,” Luke grunted.

“Trish?” Hogarth demanded. 

“In the room with Jessica,” Luke added. 

“I’m almost to her location,” Kitty stated. 

“Me too,” Kurt chimed in. 

Trish cut off the cuff around Jess’ ankle. She was barely able to pull herself back to Jessica’s chest again. She tried to reach across her unconscious girlfriend but it was too much between her injuries and the knock out gas. Trish slumped down onto Jessica’s chest and blacked out.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish's reunion with Jessica doesn't go exactly how she imagined it would, but she never really thought it would be that easy.

Trish jerked awake once the knock out gas had worn off. She winced in pain as she realized her arm was in some sort of sling to immobilize her shoulder. She reached her other arm toward the burning side of her face. It was covered with a thin piece of gaze.

Trish panicked for a moment as she remembered Jessica still strapped to that table and the oncoming guards and the bleeding corpse of the one she had killed. She quickly frantically peered around the room she was in and found a strange comfort in the stark uniformity of District 13 that usually unsettled her.

She breathed a sigh of relief and then tried to remember, which hospital room this was. There were five beds but they were all empty save for hers. She pulled the IV out of her arm and headed for the door, relieved she had been left in the grey tank top and leggings she put on under her District 13 soldier’s uniform.

The hallway led to a more secure part of the hospital wing that she had barely been in. She saw a patient roster on the wall. Beside that same headshot of Jessica, from their first games, was her room number and a bunch of codes Trish didn't understand. She headed for the room.

She stopped at a fork in the hallway. Jessica's room was to the left but her attention was drawn to the right. A few doctors ran past to the first door. Once they threw it open she heard screaming inside.

"Sedate her!" someone yelled.

"Get her out of here!" yelled someone else.

Katniss' friend Gale forced the door open with his shoulder. His back was to Trish and she didn't see that he was holding Katniss until laid her on a gurney in the hallway. She was struggling for breath and coughing violently. Gale seemed to feel eyes on him and gazed over to Trish, with a worried look in his eye.

Trish sprinted to the left and toward Jessica's room. She hoped to find it in a different state than Johanna's but unfortunately she didn't. She threw opened the door to the brightly lit room and was unable to move for a moment. It was the first time she had seen Jessica conscious since the arena escape. She had imagined the moment so often. Most of the time it was Jessica slowly awaking from a hospital bed as Trish was there to hold her and tell her everything was OK. 

_Forget that_ , Trish thought to herself. It was stupid. That was far too mushy for them. 

Jessica was flaying and pushing away doctors, who were trying to put an IV in her arm and inject her with something. It seemed they had tried to restrain her to the bed. One of the restraints was hanging off her right wrist as the other one looked like it had been torn apart. 

Trish noticed she was barely fighting back. The doctors were pushed back but they weren’t thrown across the room, which Trish knew Jessica could easily do. She was also squinting and keeping her head down, like when Trish would flip on all the lights in her room to annoying her before they went to school. 

Trish spotted the light switch on the wall and shut off all the lights. Only the few emergency lights in the room stayed on. Almost everyone froze and looked to Trish. One doctor still tried to inject Jess with something. She frantically knocked the syringe out of his head and he took a step back. 

Jessica was peering in Trish’s direction but it seemed she still couldn’t see her that well. Trish ran over and shoved away the next doctor who came at Jessica. 

“Stop it! Whatever you are doing she clearly doesn’t want you to,” Trish hissed at them. 

Jessica shuttered and shock as she covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. Trish peered down at her confused and then back at the doctor. She didn’t get a chance to answer before Hogarth came rushing into the room with Simmons and another doctor. 

“Trish, get away from her,” Hogarth commanded as she pointed at her. 

Trish peered at Jessica, who was still breathing quickly and had her eyes closed. She then gazed over at Hogarth and raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Johanna just tried to strangle Katniss,” Simmons told her. 

“The Capital did something to her. They might have done the same to Jessica,” Hogarth explained. 

Trish slowly turned toward Jessica and peered down at her. Jessica looked back at her and shook her head nervously. Trish nearly started to cry. She wasn’t sure she had ever seen that amount of fear and pain in Jessica’s eyes before. Trish leaned down to hug her and held her tightly with her one good arm. She thought she heard a few people in the room protest but she ignored them as Jess hugged her back, much faster than she could usually get her to. 

Jessica buried her head deeply into Trish’s shoulder and tried to focus on the fact she was with her again to stop herself from crying and shaking. Trish felt her shake and held her closer. 

“It’s OK. You’re safe now,” she told her. 

Jess shook harder and jerked away from Trish. Trish stood up slightly and peered at her with concerned confusion. 

“Jess, what is it?” Trish asked softly. 

Jessica’s arm shot out and her hand landed haphazardly over Trish mouth. Trish saw the same look of fear in Jessica’s eyes again as she shook her head frantically at her. Trish didn’t understand why but she understand what Jess was asking and nodded. Jessica cautiously removed her hand. She then pulled Trish into a hug again. 

“A-a-alone,” Jessica was barely able to say louder than a whisper. “M-m-make them leave.” 

Trish nodded into Jess’s shoulder. She pulled away and then leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. A look of fear briefly filled Jessica’s eyes as she watched Trish walk away from her. Trish made her way over to Hogarth and Simmons. 

“That was reckless,” Hogarth scolded her. 

Trish smirked. “I thought you would be used to that by now.” 

Hogarth sighed. 

“Is she all right?” Simmons asked. 

Trish peered over at Jessica for a moment. She was nervously looking over at Trish with her arms tensed, like she was ready to cover her ears at any moment. 

“She seems to be,” Trish said quietly looking back at Simmons and Hogarth. “She…” Trish wasn’t sure what she was about to say or how to explain what Jessica had asked of her. “She doesn’t want me to talk. She looked scared every time I did.” 

Hogarth raised an eyebrow at Simmons. 

She nodded. “It does sound similar to what they did to Johanna.” 

Trish shook her head at her. “I saw what Johanna did to Katniss. This is not the same thing.” 

“I know,” Simmons clarified. “The Capital seemed to have done something to make Johanna see Katniss as a threat. Maybe they have done the same with Jessica.” 

“Like classical conditioning?” Trish questioned with a hint of excitement. “That will wear off eventually.” 

“Yes, exactly that,” Simmons added with a hint of confusion. 

“Psychology was an easy A at our high school. Everyone took it,” Trish explained. 

Simmons smiled for a moment. “Mine too.” 

Hogarth paced for a moment then stood in front of them again. “We are going to have to figure out what the Capital strategy is with her and Johanna.” 

Trish nodded. 

“We will be monitoring them closely for the next few days,” Simmons added. 

“She isn’t going to hurt me. I know it. And she wants everyone to leave,” Trish told them. 

Hogarth sighed again. “Fine then. We will leave.” 

“Could you yell it or something? I would but…you know,” Trish replied. 

Simmons nearly smiled. 

“Everybody out!” Hogarth yelled as she strode toward the door. 

“But, Miss Hogarth,” one of the doctors protested. 

“You heard me,” she hissed in reply. “Out. All of you.” 

Everyone but Trish quickly filed out of the room. Once it was empty and the only noise was the electronic buzzing from the medical equipment, Trish made her way over to Jessica again. She sat beside her on the bed. She had so much she wanted to say and ask her but she stayed quiet. Jessica’s slowly reached her hand out and placed it on the side of Trish’s face. Trish winced slightly as barely healed skin from the bullet grazing her burned and stung again from under the bandage. 

Jessica met her eyes and looked at her with concern. Trish shook her head and gave a small smile. She slightly lifted her left leg and the white healing brace that Trish assumed had been put on her by whoever had taken care of her after she was found passed out in a Capital torture room. She then pointed at the bandage on her face and her immobilized arm and shrugged like it was nothing in comparison. 

Jessica nearly smiled.

Trish lightly touched the bandage over Jessica’s left shoulder that ran almost down to her elbow. 

“D-don’t want to t-t-talk,” Jessica struggled to say. 

Trish nodded. 

Jessica reached for her Trish’s right hand and pulled her closer. Jessica started to lay down and Trish followed her lead. They tried to comfortably position themselves, but between Trish injured left arm and Jessica’s injured left shoulder they couldn’t lay in the way the wanted. Trish nearly laughed at how awkward they were being. She got up and walked around to the other side of the bed. She took off the sling and dropped it on the ground. That bullet had barely nicked her and she didn’t find the sling pertinent. She laid on her back and pulled Jessica’s closer.

Trish’s instinct was to comfort Jess with words, like she usually would. But in lieu of that, she placed her hand on the back of her neck to get her attention and kissed her as soon as she tilted her head up to her. Jessica felt more nervous and less bold them normal but it wasn’t any less loving and caring than the last time Trish had felt her lips on hers. 

Jessica laid her head on Trish’s chest and cling to her tightly. Trish placed her arms around her and they both quietly fell asleep.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish has a much better reunion and first night with Jessica once they get alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AKA after 22 chapters, I figured it was about time for some Jessica and Trish sexy times, which I don't like writing because I am not good at it. But, here it is.

Trish turned over in the bed and slowly awoke as she realized Jessica was no longer beside her. She panicked for a moment but then saw her standing across the room, looking through the glass wall into the darkened hallway of the hospital. Trish gazed through the darkness at her for a moment. After her being away for nearly eight months, seeing that haunting video and being in the room she had been held in, Trish had expected her to look weak, broken down and defeated. 

She didn't. She was standing with her back to Trish with her arms crossed over her chest and her feet planted firmly on the ground. She looked so normal in a black tank top and jeans. Trish wondered for a moment if the doctors actually took the time to wash her clothes before they put them back on her. Her skin had smelt so much like the industrial soap of 13, the doctors had to have bathed her. 

She looked like she was ready to fight, like she had when Trish saw her during the arena escape, the last time she saw her training with her team and so many times throughout their childhood.

But, she was also staring into a hallway in the middle of the night and Trish couldn't call out for her. Trish knew she was being naive. So much was wrong and maybe Jess was defeated but for a moment Trish was able to forget.

The blonde pushed herself off the bed and winced in pain as she reached her feet. 

_Taking off the sling, bad idea,_ Trish thought to herself as she rolled her shoulder. 

Jessica heard her. She peered over her shoulder at her but only for a moment. It was enough though to remind herself that it was Trish getting out of the bed. It was the real Trish with blonde hair haphazardly tossed around her face, her tank top bunching up around her chest and her white leg brace shining blue light onto black leggings that went down to her right ankle but stopped just above her left knee. 

Trish made her way across the room and stood beside her. 

"Is this District 13?" Jessica asked.

Trish nodded.

"Johanna thought you guys were in District 13," Jessica said quietly. 

She paused for a moment, peered at the floor and then back out into the hallway.

"They always took us out of cells together then," Jessica explained blankly. "They'd just ask me questions but I never got any good information from them. I just knew you guys got out of the Capital. How'd you end up here?"

"Plutarch called them after the hovercraft took--"

Jessica jumped away from Trish and covered her ears. 

"Oh god, I'm sorry," Trish blurted as she reached for her. 

Jess tensed so hard she started to shake as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Trish lowered her arms and took a step back feeling helpless and angry with herself. Once Jess was able to calm herself down and forced herself to look up at Trish, they were nearly six feet apart. Jess took a deep strained breath as she tried to forget about the phantom pain and associate the loving, protective feelings she was getting from Trish with her voice instead. 

But she had that look of self-hatred and fear that Jessica couldn't stand to see. 

"Is there a way to go outside in this fucking district?" Jess asked.

Trish nodded and almost smiled. She took Jess' hand and led her out of the room and through the hospital. Just before they exited the hospital, Trish grabbed a large blanket folded into a neat square with a piece of rope tied around it off a shelf.

Trish pulled Jessica into the nearest elevator and they went up for what felt like an hour and then into a stairwell to go up even further. It seemed to end at a ceiling but Trish pulled a handle on the wall and a keypad slid out. She started typing in a code and then placed her finger onto a scanner.

"Not everyone is able to do this, are they?" Jessica questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Trish looked up at her and smiled.

"But of course you've got the privilege," Jessica joked but shuttered slightly, thinking about why she probably did.

Trish smirked and shrugged as a section of the ceiling lowered and revealed stairs to the surface. She dramatically motioned to the stairs. Jess shook her head at her as she laughed slightly and pulled her up into the night air. 

Jessica took a deep breath and peered around the flattened landscape. There were some trees, but they looked young not like the dense, old woods of 12. But she barely cared, it was the first time she had been outside in so long. Trish watched her gazed around more carefully. It didn't take Jessica long to find what she was looking for. She had no problem seeing in the dark now. 

Jessica lead her girlfriend over to a small hill and stood at the foot of it. Trish peered over at her and smiled. 

She opened her mouth to say something, then stopped herself.

Jessica looked uneasy but clenched Trish's hand tightly. "Say it," she said, as Trish watched her shoulders tense. 

"I thought this was what you were looking for," Trish whispered.

Jessica shuttered slightly but kept her eyes on Trish. After a moment, Jess barely smiled. She took the folded blanket from Trish, ripped the rope off and threw it down onto the grass. She laid down on the hill and pulled Trish down beside her and they laid shoulder to shoulder.

"I didn't think about this," Jess grumbled as she frowned up at the cloudy sky.

Trish chuckled as she moved closer and kissed Jessica on the cheek. Jess jerked away and jokingly glared at her. Trish peered down into her eyes silently for a moment until she have her a small nod.

"The clouds don't bother me," Trish told her. "I thought about doing this for so long."

Jessica reached up and moved Trish's hair out of her face. The look of fear and uncertainly was still in Jessica's eyes. Trish slowly leaned down and lingered just above Jess' lips for a moment, she felt her chest heave below her and felt her warm breath on her face. She smirked slightly and then closed the inches between them. 

She instantly relaxed down into Jess as she felt the tension slowly leave the girl below her. Jess placed her other hand on Trish's back and pulled her on top of her. The blonde straddled her and moved her lips in time with hers as she desperately tried to kiss away their months of separation. 

Trish slowly ran her hands down Jessica's sides and then up her stomach until she was able to cup her breast in her hand. Jessica exhaled deeply and kissed Trish more intensely for a moment and then pulled away. It wasn't even far enough for Trish to no longer feel her girlfriend's breath on her face. Trish was peering hungrily at her lips as she breathed heavily. Jess seized the bottom of Trish's tank top and slowly pulled it up. 

Jessica smirked at the look of desperation in Trish's eyes as she was forced to move further away from Jess' lips so she could pull the top over her head. Trish ran her hand through her hair to get it out of her face as she leaned down into Jessica again. Trish froze between kissing her and asking her something.

"Say it," Jessica said quickly with a nod. 

"Are you sure about this?" Trish asked with a mixture of concern and excitement. 

Jessica smirked as she flipped Trish onto her back and placed her knee in between her legs. She pulled off her tank top and threw it aside. 

"Yeah," she told her quietly as she leaned down and kissed her passionately as her bare skin grew hot as it met hers. 

The brief affirmation was all Trish seemed to need, Jessica noticed and couldn't be happier about. As soon as she gave it to her, Trish was hastily removing Jessica's bra and her own and kissing her and touching her just like she had all those times during that glorious year when they lived together in that apartment in the Capital.

Jessica thought it would feel like a lifetime away when she would finally get back to Trish and her energetic passion but they could have been back there for as clearly as Jessica's mind was able to function. Trish continued to kiss her as she reached down and undid the button and zipper of Jessica's jeans. Jessica help her pull them down but nearly lost all control when Trish's fingers reached their location. 

Jessica seized with pleasure and groaned as she had to pull her lips away from Trish's so she could attempt to find her breath. Trish smiled up at her pleased as she repeated her hand's motion, only faster. Jess pressed her lips against Trish's with a little too much force as she tried to disperse her pleasure. 

Trish grunted in pain as she head pushed back uncomfortably into the dried ground beneath the blanket. Jess knew she had been too forceful but she couldn't control her passion enough to voice it or pull herself back enough to look Trish in the eye. So, she grabbed for the top of her leggings and slid her hand down until she felt the heat and wetness she had been expecting.

Trish nearly, instantly groaned with pleasure. Jessica's mouth formed into a smirk against Trish's lips but the blonde quickly made that go away by sensually sliding her tongue into her mouth. 

As Jess moved her fingers in all the ways she knew Trish liked best, she felt like she had arrived in some kind of fantasy world or this had to be a dream. This couldn't really be happening. She had assumed, for so long, that she would die back in that torture room in the Capital and her last glimpse of the love of her life would be a brief moment of her in the Hunger Games as she teased her from a tree that Jess had dared to look at.

But that thought left her mind, as Trish dug her fingers into her back as she climaxed beneath her and her chest arched up against hers. Jessica smirked down at her and nodded pleased with herself. Trish reached up and kissed the smirk off her face.

Jess dropped down beside her and pulled vacant half of the blanket over them. She peered into Trish's pleased and elated eyes. Trish grabbed her hand and squeezed it as she peered at her in question.

"Say it," Jessica told her.

"I love you," Trish admitted, with such gravity it felt just as meaningful and heartfelt as the first time she had years ago. She had told her so many times since then, but it had been so long since she had the chance to.

"I love you too," Jessica replied, peering into Trish's eyes and actually believing that she was safe for the first time in a long time.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trish and Jessica are struggling to adjust to their life together in 13 after everything that has happened.

Three weeks later, Trish was struggling to remove her hands from the bonds they were tied with.

"Yes," she said quietly to herself she as pulled out one of her hands. She started pulling at the bonds to release her other hand and then went for the bonds around her ankles.

It was a new super recruits training exercise. Jessica had been officially re-instated as the commander of the super recruits. Or at least she had been as far as District 13 and its overt uniformity was concerned. In reality the transition of power back to Commander Jones from her retroactively named, by District 13, Deputy Commanders Pryde and Cage was happening more slowly.

So the starting blindfolded and bond on one side of the room with the goal of making it to the safe zone on the other side of the training room exercise had been Kitty's idea.

Trish untangled herself from her rope and started sprinting across the room. She spotted a few others running in the same direction as her. She veered to the right to avoid Bobby, who she assumed was on the Peacekeeper team as he shot ice in front of Pete, who went sliding across the floor and straight into a wall.

Jess came guided falling out of nowhere and landed beside Trish. She yelped and stumbled as she instinctively flinched away from her. Jessica grabbed her arm and steadied her. Trish glared at her with her mouth slightly agape.

"Say it," Jessica told with a smile as they ran toward the safe zone.

"You scared the shit out of me," Trish told her. "Us or peacekeepers?"

Jessica smirked at her. "Peacekeepers," she said as she twisted Trish's arm, forcing her to stop running as Jessica stood behind her.

Trish threw her elbow back into Jessica's ribs. She then turned around and slammed her hand into her neck and punched her in face. Jessica fell to the ground and Trish started sprinting toward the safe zone again.

"Uh, bitch," Jessica called after Trish assumed as she got to her feet and chased after her.

Trish peered over her shoulder for just a moment. "Shit, shit, shit," Trish said to herself as she sprinted forward, knowing she couldn't out run Jess.

Trish heard a buzzing noise that sounded like one of Clarice's portals behind her.

"Ah, fuck," Jessica yelled as Marie dropped from the sky and landed on top of her and they tumbled to the ground.

Trish leapt forward and Daisy grabbed her hands and helped pull her over the red line that marked the safe zone.

"Thanks," Trish told her with a smile as she got to her feet.

Trish peered out into the training floor and saw that it was empty, save for Jessica and Marie who were pushing each other away and nervously scrambling backward from each other.

"Oh no," Clarice breathed softly. "We didn't realize that was Jessica," she said desperately to Trish.

"It's OK," Trish told her as they both ran towards them. "It didn't cross my mind either."

Trish knelt in front of Jessica when she reached her. She had her hands balled into fists and was forcefully pushing them against her forehead as she took rapidly, short breathes.

"Stop. Stop it. It's OK. Everything is fine," Clarice told Marie.

Trish silently placed her hands around Jessica's wrists and was barely able to pull her fists away from her head. She felt the muscles in her arms strain as she tried and Jessica didn't let up and didn't hold back, like she had in the fight earlier.

Trish grunted when she finally got her fists off her forehead. Jessica started to pull away from Trish, but she placed her hands on the sides of her face and forced her to look at her.

The look of comfort and caring in her eyes was nearly too much for Jessica. She inhaled deeply, whimpered and started to cry as she leaned her head down into Trish's chest.

She held her tightly and kissed her hair. Trish kept her cheek pressed against Jessica's hair until she saw Kitty and Luke standing in front of her.

"Let's end training for today?" Kitty asked.

Trish nodded.

The deputy commander nodded back. "Remember top 5 are needed in command at 8 tonight."

Trish nodded in reply. She remembered she and Jess were needed in command that evening along with Kitty, Luke and Pete. They had all be given terribly uniformed titles by 13. Trish couldn't even remember what hers was exactly, something like Human Liaison to the Gifted Armed Forces Division. But in the super recruits they were simply referred to as the top 5.

After a few more minutes of awkward prying, Trish got Jessica to her feet and led her down to the 22nd floor to their room.

They walked there in silence, which wouldn't have been that unusual for them. They had been doing a lot of things in silence. But, Jessica hadn't reached for her hand either. That had been nearly a constant since she returned. Jess had both her hands deep in the tiny pockets of her training jacket.

"I'm gonna shower," Jessica grumbled quietly as soon as they reached the room.

Trish nodded but Jess already had her back to her as she made her way to the bathroom.

Trish sighed to herself and sat on one of the benches at the table and started unlacing her shoes. She nearly started crying at her shoelaces thinking about how they had ended up here.

 _I can't make you feel better. I don't know how_ , Trish thought to herself with a dark laugh. Jess used to say stuff like that to her all the time. Trish always understood. She was trying and that was enough.

But trying wasn’t enough anymore.

Trish tossed her shoes and jacket at her bed. She was beginning to hate the rules and standards of District 13. She had figured out why most rooms had two single beds when she asked for a room with one large bed now that Jessica was back. Single citizens were required to have a roommate. Citizens who were married or "partnered" -- as the housing coordinator had said with a uncomfortable slant -- still were assigned rooms with two single beds because 'unnecessary sex' was prohibited. Trish had learned that unnecessary meant not making a child, which meant 'partnered' meant unmarried straight people and District 13 was homophobic. 

_Because they weren't bad enough already_ , Trish thought.

Once Trish was only in her leggings, leg brace and bra, she realized she was hearing no noise from the bathroom. She pulled her hair down and shook it out as she reached the doorway.

Trish took a deep breath as she laid eyes on her strong, protective, tough girlfriend nervously staring at the shower. She was still fully clothed save for her jacket and shoes. Trish walked up and stood behind her for a moment in silence.

"I don't like water," Jessica told her cryptically.

Trish scoffed and shook her head. "That is all you are going to give me?"

Jessica flinched away slightly. She peered back at Trish for a moment as her bottom lip quivered and she nervously looked up at her.

"They, um, the Capital, they water boarded me for information," Jessica explained quietly.

Trish felt her entire body sink slightly in disappointment. She bit her lip forcefully and nearly drew blood.

"Jess, I--,"

She shook her head. "Just don't, Trish. Okay? I'm not looking for pity and I don't want anyone taking care of me."

Trish placed her chin on Jessica's shoulder and sighed loudly. "I'm not looking to take care of you. I just don't want you thinking nobody cares.” 

Jess squirmed uncomfortably until Trish took a step back from her. “I know that,” she stated with weak defiance. 

“I know you do,” Trish replied in reassurance. 

Jessica sighed annoyed. “Would you shower with me or whatever?” 

Trish tried to suppress her smile on her face since she knew Jess probably didn’t want to see her smiling at how cute she was being. “Sure,” Trish said as she took a step in front of Jessica and started to undo the strapped of her leg brace. 

Jessica nodded like she didn’t really care but Trish could see the utter relief in her eyes. They undressed silently and barely acknowledged each other again until they were under the large shower head that was in the center of the glass shower stall. Trish laughed as she Jessica struggled to get around her and to the bottles of soaps. The stall wasn’t really big enough for two people. As Trish looked closer she realized Jessica was avoiding the water stream as much as she could. 

But before she could react or say anything, Jessica had abandoned her quest for the soap and was staring at the scar on Trish’s left shoulder from the bullet that just barely hit her during Jessica’s rescue. She lightly ran her hand over it and peered down at Trish’s left leg, which had multiple faint scars from the numerous surgery’s she had had over the years. 

Jessica looked up at her and sadly met her eyes. Trish took a step toward her and guided her out of the water stream and against one of the walls of the stall. Trish was standing directly under the water as she leaned down and kissed the burn mark on Jessica’s shoulder. She slowly and tenderly made her way around Jessica’s chest, arms and stomach kissing each of the burn marks she knew had been left by those stun sticks the Capital guards were so fond of. 

Trish had felt and heard Jessica’s passions raising. Jessica finally let it show by pushing Trish against the other wall. Jess shook slightly as she stood directly under the water stream, but she moved toward Trish. They collided into a kiss as Trish was quickly moving toward her when she saw her distress. They kissed passionately as the hot water filled the stall with steam. Jessica rapidly moved her hands over every inch of Trish’s bare, wet skin. 

Trish was overtaken by the passion and pushed herself against Jessica. She let her for a moment but shuttered and broke away from her as the water hit her. The sudden movement caused Trish to awkwardly turn her left leg and she groaned in pain as she leaned back against the wall again. Trish leaned her head back against the wall and let out an annoyed breath. Jessica groaned and punched the wall beside her. A tile cracked and part of it feel to the bottom of the shower. 

“Fuck the Capital,” Jessica yelled, down at the broken tile fragment. 

“We will,” Trish said angrily through her teeth. 

Jessica peered up at her and raised an eyebrow. “You guys have a plan, right?” 

Trish nodded as she turned the lever on the wall and turned the water off. She pushed open the glass door of the shower stall. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself and handed the other to Jessica. 

“They have to pay for what they’ve done,” Trish stated. 

Jessica wrapped the towel around herself and stood beside Trish in the humid bathroom. “Regular justice isn’t going to work with these assholes.” 

“Oh, I know,” Trish replied. “They don’t deserve regular justice after what they have done. I am all for waltzing into the Capital and killing anyone involved that we can get close enough to.” 

Jessica peered at her in silence for a moment, slightly concerned by her statement. But, she nodded since she agreed wholeheartedly.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica steps more into her commander position as Johanna and Katniss have a strained reunion and multiple people doubt Coin's plans.

Trish finished getting dressed and slowly turned to see Jessica sitting on her bed. After dinner they had to meet in command, so their District 13 jumpsuits were required. Jess had hers buttoned up to her waist and then tied the top of it so her black t-shirt was still visible. She had the left sleave pushed up onto her shoulder and was applying the healing cream the hospital wing had given her.

She groaned through her teeth as she applied it. Trish smiled as she walked over to her. She was glad the shredded skin on her shoulder was healing and the pained, annoyed groan was such a simple thing that Trish had missed so much.

She sat beside her at her bed. Jess looked up at her and flinched away slightly and then stared at her chest. Her eyes shot up to Trish's for a moment and then back down. Trish realized she was looking at her jacket, well Jess' jacket.

Trish placed her hand on Jessica's knee and she nodded without looking up at her.

"I can take it off," Trish offered. "If you don't want me to wear it."

"You wore it in your victor interview," Jess grumbled in reply.

"I know," Trish stated sadly.

They had talked about the interview a lot during their time together between the 74th and 75th games. It had been a painfully experience for both of them. Trish had to answer terrible questions and watch footage of their games while thinking Jess was dead. And Jess had to watch all of it on television, hating herself for not telling Trish she was alive.

"The assholes didn't get to it," Jess added. "The assholes from the Capital. You came before they did."

Jess cautiously looked up at Trish, who was gazing at her with such a look of love Jess couldn't do anything but kiss her.

Trish smiled against Jessica's lips when she did.

"We should get going," Trish said when she pulled away.

Jessica reluctantly nodded.

She thought she'd have a harder time getting used to District 13. From what Trish had vague alluded to, it sounded like she had a rough time adjusting. But then again, Jess never expected to get back to District 12. For a while she never expected to get out of the Capital. Her location wasn't her biggest problem, she was.

She could handle strict uniformity and terrible food and constantly being managed from above. What she couldn't handle was how she still flinched away from Trish whenever she touched her too quickly or winced from phantom pain whenever she spoke without warning.

She knew Trish was hating it too. Every time Jess flinched away, Trish got that look on her face that everything was her fault and her first response was to apologize over and over. Jess hated that look. She had been doing everything she could since the moment she was taken in by her to make sure she never had to see that face again. But now she was seeing it regularly because she still had trouble remembering that Trish wasn't going to hurt her.

 _Whole thing's a fucking mess_ , Jess thought as Trish lead her by the hand into the cafeteria.

Finnick spotted them from a table in the corner. He nodded at them and held up a plastic container.

"Thank god," Trish said in relief as she lead them over.

Jessica stopped paying attention as she and Trish sat on the bench beside Peeta, who handed them containers of food. The person sitting in between Finnick and Annie looked up at her slowly.

Jessica hadn't seen Johanna since she burst into her cell and fought off those guards. She had been bloodied and bruised and nearly unconscious. She looked only slightly better now. Jess knew she had lost weight but Johanna looked like the Capital had been starving her. She had stitches on hands and fading bruises on her face. Her head had been shaved and hair was just starting to grow back.

"Enjoying the view, Jones," Johanna hissed at her.

Jess scoffed at her. "Well, at least you look better than the last time I saw you."

"Jess," Trish sighed, rolling her eyes.

Jess shuttered away from her. She closed her eyes annoyed at herself.

"What the fuck did they do to you?" Johanna questioned.

"Torture via Patsy Walker TV appearances," she replied.

"So they just made you watch them?" she shot at her.

Jess almost smiled but she could nearly feel Trish tensing beside her. Usually, she was quick with a retort when someone insulted her work like that. Jess reached for Trish's hand under the table and held hers softly.

"Shot me up with pain whenever she spoke," Jess jabbed back. "What'd you get?"

"Oh, mystery murder words," Johanna hissed with angry fake excitement. "I go into super fun murder rampages whenever..."

Johanna trailed off as she failed to keep up the facade she and Jess were putting on.

Annie put a hand on Johanna's shoulder. When she started to squirm away, Annie placed her other hand there too.

"We're trying to make sense of it," Finnick explained. "It seems random with what is said and by whom."

"And we will figure it out," Annie said softly.

Johanna weakly nodded.

"And then we are going to blow those bastards off the map," a familiar voice hissed angrily from behind them.

They all turned to see Katniss with an anxious yet determined look on her face.

"Katniss," Peeta said with a nervous glance toward Johanna who was peering down at the table and breathing heavily. "When did you get discharged?" he scoot down on the bench to make room for her.

"She hasn't," Prim said from her side as both of them headed to the table.

"Coin said this meeting is too important to miss," Katniss said as she held her hand over the left side of her chest, where she had been shot while fighting in District 2.

"She's, um, coming back afterward," Prim said as she sat beside her. She was caught off guard for a moment by how Johanna was staring at Katniss.

"Johanna," Jessica called across the table at her.

She jumped and then looked at Jessica and shook her head. "It's good. I'm fine," she said breathlessly, sneaking another quick glance at Katniss.

The rest of dinner was mostly silent. Peeta and Prim would have small conversation. Finnick chimed in once or twice. Jessica kept seeing Johanna peer over at Katniss and Annie kept seeing Katniss peer over at Johanna. Both looked like they were ready to bolt away from table at any moment. Maybe they were planning to bolt to the same place, neither Jess nor Annie could tell.

An alarm rang out from the mandatory viewing screens. Katniss jumped and Trish yelped slightly and clenched Jess' hand tighter.

Finnick scoffed when the screen flashed "Command Meeting" in red letters and a list of ranks scrolled below it.

"They had to use the same alarm?" Katniss fumed.

"Probably didn't even crossed their minds," Peeta added.

"These bastards don't have emotions, do they?" Johanna questioned.

"No amount of structure can make emotions uniform," Annie added.

The alarm rang out again.

"Fuck this. Let's go," Katniss blurted and rapidly got to her feet.

"Be careful," Prim replied quickly as she jumped to her feet beside her. Katniss groaned in pain and let Prim steady her.

Jess, Trish and Finnick followed her out of the cafeteria and into command.

Trish grasped Jess' hand again when they entered into the sea of people.

"Whoa," Trish said under her breathe. 

She had never seen command look like this before. The large screen on the back wall was covered with a map of Panem with icons with either the Panem seal or the Mockingjay symbol floating above them. A few of them were moving slowly on the ground while other were rapidly zipping through the sky. A holographic map of the Capital was floating in the center of the room. Most people seemed to be crowded around it. Trish felt someone staring at her and peered to her right to see Cressida and what looked like her entire film crew huddled in the back near the still unmanned computer stations. The director peered at her actress hungrily but her expression turned angrier after she spotted Jessica at Trish’s side. Trish quickly looked away from her and over to the other side of the room, where the other computer stations where. She expected to see Daisy at one of them and she did. The rest of Jessica’s team was huddled nearby. Trish led them over. 

Luke’s face lite up when they approached and he smiled down at them. 

“You two got any better information than the rest of us?” he asked them quietly. 

Trish shook her head. 

“These bastards don’t seem keen on sharing,” Jess stated. 

Kitty huffed from nearby. “They never have been.”

Coin held up her hands and smiled slightly unsettlingly at the room. “Quiet everyone, we need to get started,” she declared. 

Jess squinted through the crowd to see her. She ended up meeting eyes with Hogarth, who was standing beside Coin and Plutarch, looking annoyed. She pulled a flash from her blazer pocket and took a swig. She held it out to Pam, who was standing beside her. Pam huffed at her irritated, but took a swig too before she shoved the flask back into Hogarth’s pocket. 

Jess shook her head at them, slightly amused and turned her attention to Coin. 

“The final battle is nearing,” she stated grandly. “Most of the district forces are closing in on the Capital borders. In response, most of the residents in the outer rim of the city have been relocated closer to the city center,” she told everyone as she pointed it out on the hologram map. 

“What does this mean for us?” one of the high ranking District 13 soldiers asked. Trish wasn’t sure what his name was but he seemed to be running whatever unit of District 13’s military that Finnick and Katniss had been assigned to. They stood silently behind him. 

“Boggs, you and the rest of the Star Squad will be sent to the front line the day after tomorrow,” Coin said with a nod to him. She tapped the screen of the tablet in her hand and a red line appeared on the map of the Capital just inside the city limits. 

Trish saw Cressida perk up from the back of them room. She figured she was part of whatever the Star Squad was. 

“All of us, ma’am?” Boggs questioned. 

“Yes,” she stated firmly. “All of you.” 

There was a moment of tense silence as Boggs glanced over his shoulder at Katniss and Cressida made her way to the front of the circle of people and stopped near Boggs. 

“You cannot be serious,” Cressida stated. 

“I very much am, Miss Tyleyn,” Coin replied. 

Trish watched Cressida run her hand through her hair looking defeated and Katniss shift uncomfortably behind her commander. Trish hand her thumb down her own commander’s hand to not startle her by speaking. 

“Katniss is not well enough to fight yet,” Trish told her. 

Coin glared at her. Hogarth and Pam peered over uncertainly. 

“Send my team first,” Jessica chimed in. “We are all ready to fight and stand a better chance they any of you do.” 

“We don’t mean any offense by that, by the way,” Luke added. 

“Your team is being sent in, Commander Jones,” Coin replied, looking offended at them from speaking out of turn. “We have intel about a handful of small forces just inside the front line. We need a team to go in quickly and take them out.” 

Jessica peered around to the other four members of her team. The first three nodded at her encouragingly. Trish peered into her eyes, with a hint of concern, but gave a small smile. 

“We can do it,” Jessica stated. “So, wait until we are done to send the…” 

“Star squad,” Kitty chimed in.

“Yeah, them,” Jessica continued. “Wait to send them in until my team has taken out the forces inside the line.” 

Coin shook her head. Hogarth huffed angrily and pulled out her flask again. “We need the Star Squad footage to continue are televised campaign against the Capital,” Coin informed them. 

Jess scoffed at them as she nodded her head toward girlfriend. “Send the film crew with us. We got your fucking star power.” 

Trish groaned as she felt her stomach drop. She knew Jessica plan wasn’t going to work. Trish had advocated for so long about Katniss’ importance and how the people of Panem were more liking to follow the Mockingjay than Pasty Walker. It had always been to protect Katniss and to show her she was important and needed and the revolution wouldn’t be the same without her. Trish felt sick. She knew Coin was about to throw it all back in her face as a reason why a barely recovered Katniss should be sent into the line of fire. 

“The people need to see their Mockingjay,” Coin stated. 

Hogarth huffed heatedly at her empty flask. “They would also prefer her alive, Madame President,” she hissed. 

“I can film more propos here,” Cressida added. 

“Miss Tyleyn, you should know more than anyone that the people will grow sick of that eventually,” Plutarch replied. 

“But, they could be seeing me out there fighting,” Trish said. 

She felt a nervous shiver in the hand inside hers. Jessica yanked her hand away as she cringed away from Trish. Trish peered over at her desperately. Jessica kept her eyes shut for a moment and then slowly opened them. She reluctantly turned her gaze to Trish. They met eyes for a moment and Trish sadly smiled. 

“With her and my team, what more could the Mockingjay really do for us?” Jessica questioned. 

Coin did not replied for a moment as she looked angrily from Plutarch, to Jessica, to Hogarth, to Katniss and then to Boggs again. 

“I fear you have all forgotten. This is not a request. It is a command. Boggs, you and the Star Squad will head for the front line in two days. Miss Tyleyn, you and your film crew will be with them. Commander Jones, you and your team will be heading to your first assignment. You will do as I command. Need I remind you, you are not actual residents of District 13 and you only have a home here because we opened our gates to you?” 

Jessica was shaking again, but it wasn’t from fear of phantom pain this time. Most of it wasn’t even her anger. She knew barely nothing about District 13, she had only been there for three weeks. But Trish had been there much longer. And it seemed the stupid, uniformed bastards had hid underground for nearly 75 years as the rest of the nation had been beaten down by the Capital and forced to send kids to the Hunger Games every year. The assholes had a stock pile of weapons and they were only willing to help after the rest of the national already had two revolutionary faces to throw their support behind. 

“This decision should really be left up to the Mockingjay,” Plutarch stated. 

Everyone turned to Katniss, who peered around the room anxiously for a moment. She took a deep breath and then peered directly at Coin. 

“I’m ready,” she stated simply.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica gets a warning from Hogarth.

The sea of people in command broke apart as Coin dismissed them, Jessica found herself being pulled away from Trish as she was being pulled told the film crew section.

Jessica angrily struggled against Pam's grasp on he wrist for a moment. She sighed at her disappointed.

"The fuck do you want with me, Pam?" Jess questioned.

Pam sighed heavily through her thick makeup. "Nothing, of course. Jeri wants to see you."

"About what?" Jessica hissed as she let her former handler led her through a hallway and up the stairs to her former mentor's room, which was also on the 22nd floor.

Pam huffed at her annoyed. "Jeri will tell you," she stated as she led her inside and closed the door behind her.

"Why just me? What does she have to say that Trish can't also hear?" Jessica questioned of Pam angrily.

Hogarth scoffed to herself and gave a small dark laugh as she poured a hefty amount of whiskey into a glass. She poured a smaller amount into another glass and handed it to Jess.

"Efficiency," Hogarth stated as she sat on the chair near her.

Jessica sat on to chair across from Hogarth as Pam went over and stood behind her.

"I'm not stupid enough to think telling one of you isn't the same as telling both," Hogarth said with a knowing smile.

Jessica took a long sip of her whiskey. "What do you have to tell me?"

"I don't trust Coin," Hogarth stated.

Jess scoffed. "That supposed to be news?"

Hogarth exhaled annoyed. "Could you be serious for a moment, Jessica?"

Jess almost smiled at her in appreciation. She wasn't treating her any differently than she did the last time she saw her. Jessica nearly smiled but stopped herself because maybe Hogarth didn't even think about what had changed.

"I am. I haven't been here long but she seems untrustworthy. Trish seems like she doesn't like her either," Jessica replied.

Pam nodded rapidly at Hogarth's side.

"Coin doesn't like Trish either," Hogarth replied.

"That bad?" Jess questioned.

Hogarth shook her head as she emptied half her whiskey glass. "She doesn't see her as enough of a threat."

Jessica laughed slightly. "Well that is stupid."

"Certainly," Pam added.

"She only sees Katniss as an actual threat to her," Hogarth stated. "I thought she might step out of line to eliminate her but today..."

"She isn't ready for the front lines," Jessica stated.

Hogarth nodded. "I think Coin wants her dead. It would be easier to rise to power with a martyred Mockingjay than one with the power to command the nation."

Jessica nodded seriously as she downed her whiskey. "How can I help?"

"Well, keep Trish alive but I don't need to remind you of that," Hogarth stated. "Then if you get near Katniss try and do the same."

Jessica nodded. "I will," she told her as she placed her empty glass on the table and walked out of the room. She headed back down toward command in search of Trish.

Trish smirked and shook her head at Cressida as she held the door of command open for her. They walked into the hallway and headed for the stairwell. Trish got caught up in talking with her about shooting being delayed and how sad Finnick was going to be that he was going to have to wait and film his super over the top action sequence.

"Well, I am sure you are still going to get pretty good action," Trish told her with a smile.

Cressida laughed lightly. "Not as much if I got to go with you."

"Are you saying Katniss cannot deliver?" Trish questioned.

Cressida pulled the door to the stairwell open. "No," she said shaking her head. "I am just saying I enjoy filming you more. It is so much easier."

"Yeah, why is that?" Trish asked as she spun around in the stairwell landing to face Cressida, who walked around the heavy metal door.

"Because you are fantastic," she said as she pushed her lightly in the abdomen toward the wall. The director ran her hands over the tight muscles underneath her shirt and perked her eyebrows up at Trish. "And so much more fun," Cressida told her with a jokingly seductive tone.

Trish laughed and smiled at her. "That the only reason?"

Cressida furrowed her brow in fake contemplation. "I'm not sure. Let me see," she said as she leaned in and pressed her lips firmly against hers.

Trish got caught up in the levity and comfort for a moment until she fully realized what was happening.

"Cressida, stop," Trish struggled to say through a strained breath.

"You don't sound like you want me to stop," Cressida breathed sensually against her face.

Trish felt her body arch and sigh in pleasure at the feeling of Cressida against her.

"Stop kidding yourself, Trish," she said in between kisses that the younger woman didn't fight against. "You know you need this."

Trish placed her hand on the back of Cressida's neck and pulled her closer to her. She kissed her desperately. She was right, part of her did need it. It was simple and passionate and had been the same for so long.

"What the fuck, Trish?" she heard Jessica yell.

Trish jumped and pushed Cressida away. She peered over to the stairs and saw Jess walking down the last few onto the landing, looking equally betrayed, angry and confused.

Trish shook her head at her. "It's not..."

"What I think?" Jessica questioned Trish with an angry glance to Cressida. The three of them were standing in an incredibly tense lopsided triangle.

Trish shook her head again. "There isn't anything going on between us, Jess."

"Maybe you should stop lying to her, Trish," Cressida chimed in.

Trish glanced at her with a look of betrayal. "I'm not lying," Trish said turning to Jess.

Cressida scoffed. "We were together for a rather long time actually and clearly it still isn't over."

Jessica felt her heart sink as she looked from Cressida to Trish. "Is that true?"

Trish took a shaky breath as a tear ran down her face. "It was when you were dead, Jess. I thought I had lost you forever."

Cressida crossed her arms over her chest and scoffed. "That wasn't the only time. She had been coming to me a lot recently."

"Cressida," Trish blurted at her.

"Will you fucking let her speak?" Jess hissed as she took a few steps toward Cressida, who stood her ground and peered at her intensely.

"She isn't going to tell you the truth."

"It's her choice if she wants to tell me or not," Jessica shot at her.

"You aren't doing anything but causing her harm. I'm better for her. She should be with me," Cressida told her forcefully.

Jessica shoved her with barely any force. "Stop talking about her like some prize we're fighting over. She gets to chose and if you don't realize that, you don't know her at all." Jessica shoved Cressida again with more force. She stumbled backwards and fell to the floor.

"I know her more than you think," Cressida said up at her.

"Yeah, Patsy maybe," Jess replied.

Jessica turned away from her angrily and stormed up the stairs.

"Jess," Trish called after her softly. She flinched slightly so Trish knew she heard her but she continued up the stairs.

Trish nearly collapsed into tears right there. Jessica was right. Nobody knew her like she did.

Cressida pushed herself to her feet and exhaled deeply as she peered at Trish.

"I'm sorry, Cressida. We have to end this," Trish told her as she ran up the stairs after Jess.

The door to their room was open but Trish still knocked on it before she stepped inside. Jess was sitting cross legged on her bed and peering down at the mattress, with a sad but vacant expression.

"Jess, I'm sorry," Trish said as she slowly walked over. She considered sitting beside her like she so desperately wanted to but it seemed too forward so she sat on the edge of her bed, facing her. "I wanted to tell you but I never found the right time."

"Was it only during when she said?" Jessica asked.

Trish shook her head but then realized Jessica wasn't looking at her. "Mostly it was when I thought you were dead. There was a bit after you were captured. And I know I can't make excuses in comparison to what you were going through."

Jess nodded sadly. "Nah, Trish. I get it. You were left with nobody and found what you needed in her."

Trish started to cry and held her face in her hand. "Yeah," she answered.

"I wasn't here. I'd accepted that I might die after I left you in that hovercraft."

"But I shouldn't have believed it," Trish tearfully replied.

"Why not?" Jess grumbled calmly. "It wasn't the first time I left you like that."

"You only did it to keep us alive."

Jess nodded.

"I shouldn't have repaid you like this. I'm sorry," Trish said as she leaned forward toward her.

"I'm not mad. I have no right to be," Jess told her as she peered up at her.

Trish nodded as she wiped away her tears. "Can I?" she asked.

Jess nodded as she laid down on her bed. Trish curled herself into her and placed her head half against her neck. Jess turned and kissed her on the forehead.


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss and Johanna finally reconnect at Finnick and Annie's wedding.

"This looks stupid," Jessica grumbled at her reflection in the mirror of their room. She squirmed uncomfortably in the knee length black dress. 

"No it doesn't," Trish told her as she stood behind her and slid her arms around her. She placed her chin on her shoulder and smiled at her through the mirror.

Jess huffed annoyed. "I can't trust your opinion."

Trish laughed as she turned her around. "Well who else are you trying to impress?"

"Shut up," Jessica instructed as she leaned forward and kissed the amused expression off Trish's face. 

"Uh, we need to get going," Trish stated as she pulled away from Jessica. She grabbed the red lipstick off her bed and re-applied it on Jessica's lips as she groaned at her. 

Trish leaned away from her and wiped away where they had smudged the lipstick. Though Jessica wasn't a fan of her own outfit, Trish's floor length blue dress and red blazer looked fantastic. Jessica smiled at her and leaned in again. 

Trish placed her hands on her chest and stopped her at the last possible moment. "You are going to mess up the lipstick," she told her.

Jessica shook her head annoyed. "Who the fuck cares?"

Trish turned her arm and peered at her tiny gold watch. "Katniss for one. We are already late. So come on," Trish told her as she grabbed her hand and drug her down the hall. 

"Why isn't she already there?" Jessica questioned. "Did Annie not let her maid-of-honor invite a date?"

Trish laughed. "Of course not. Apparently, Johanna was too afraid to ask Katniss. 

"So we were charged with brining her?" Jessica asked. 

Trish shrugged. "Bride's orders. I wasn't going to defy her."

Jessica huffed but nodded understandingly. 

Trish knocked on Katniss' door. She pulled the door open and stared at them silently. Trish almost yelped in excitement. Jess groaned again.

Katniss peered at them uncertainly.

"She thinks you look great," Jess explained. 

"And you?" Katniss questioned. 

"I think it looks fine," Jess told her as she looked her tight fitting gold and black dress up and down. "But then I'm not Johanna."

"Yeah well, you look fine too," Katniss replied uncomfortably. 

"But you ain't Trish," she replied.

Katniss smiled and shook her head. 

"So now that that is settled can we get to this wedding?" Trish asked of them. Jessica nodded and led them to the elevator. 

"Shit, they have levels like this?" Jessica asked when they reached the wedding venue which looked more like a park, an actual outdoors park, than a concrete room stories underground. 

Trish took her hand and smiled at her. "Normally it isn't open to the public because it is just for scientific research."

Katniss huffed and shook her head. 

"You want to sit with us or your dicks in suits squad?" Jessica asked motioning toward Gale and Peeta sitting a few rows ahead of them in a mostly District 12 section.

Katniss stifled a laugh. Trish rolled her eyes at her. 

"I'll sit with them, but only because my family is over there too," Katniss told them as she walked away.

Jessica and Trish headed over to group of super recruits. They and the few others from districts other than 13 understood that a wedding was more than just a formality so they actually had pieced together semi-normal looking wedding outfits. The District 13 residents were just wearing the normal jumpsuits. 

Finnick and Annie invited everyone in 13. Coin had only allowed it because Cressida was filming it for a propo. 

Katniss hadn't been to many weddings in District 12 but the customs from 4 didn't seem that different. It went from the ceremony to dinner and then to dancing and that seemed correct to her. 

She didn't stay with Gale and Peeta long. Peeta was being too nice and polite about everything from her not that bad injury to her throwing their fake relationship aside. But he was still better than Gale and his new weird jealous over, well Katniss didn't even know. She hadn't even spoken to Johanna since she nearly strangled her to death. She had barely seen her either, save for that awkward dinner. When Katniss could no longer stand the two of them, she split off and found Jessica and Trish and some of their team by the bar. 

They clanked their glass of some type of alcohol that someone on Jessica's team was able to create, Katniss didn't know but she also didn't care once they offered her a glass.

"So Simmons has gotten into Hogarth's good graces?" Jessica asked Trish with a smile as she looked up from her glass. 

"If she wasn't there already," Trish replied. 

"This ain't half bad," Luke said holding out his glass and peering at it. "Maybe if we survive all this shit, we could get the bar up and running again."

"I get my old job back?" Jessica questioned. 

He nodded with a grin.

"Oh," Katniss blurted in realization.

"Something just click?" Trish asked her with a smile.

"You guys are Luke's Bar in The Hob," Katniss stated.

"Were," Luke added with a sad shrug. 

Jess smirked at Katniss. "You just realized that?"

"I never went," she replied looking slightly embarrassed. 

"Lots of people didn't," Trish told her kindly.

"Hey," Luke and Jess called in unison.

Trish laughed and then started to defend herself but Katniss stopped listening. She had never been to the older kids' bar because she never had anyone to go with. She didn't have many friends and there was only one she had ever enjoyed drinking with. 

Katniss looked around the dance floor and the tables, hoping to see her. She smiled slightly to herself and turned to the bar to get another drink. She carried them over to the girl sitting by herself amongst a sea of empty table. 

Katniss set the full glass in front of Johanna and sat beside her with her almost full one. They didn't say anything for what felt like hours.

Johanna seized the drink and took a long sip. She exhaled loudly as she placed it back on the table. She peered over at Katniss.

"Afraid to talk, are you?" Johanna questioned, with a enduring type of anger that Katniss had missed. 

She nodded. "I don't know what I can say."

Johanna pulled a piece of folded paper out of her dress and tossed it on the table in front of Katniss. 

"Nothing on that list," Johanna told her. 

Katniss stared at the paper cautiously for a moment. 

"Well look at it," Johanna instructed. "Just don't read it out loud."

"I know," Katniss grumbled as she grabbed for the paper and unfolded it. She unfolded it and peered down at it intensely.

Johanna took another drink to distract herself. She didn't want to cry again. But Katniss' look of anger, fear and compassion at the list was almost too much for her. This was also the longest conversation they had had in nearly nine months. 

Katniss sighed down at the list. _Rebellion. Capital. District 12. District 7. Mockingjay. Primrose. Victory. Patsy Walker. Johanna._

Only the last line of the list seemed like something she might slip and say by accident. 

"How'd you figure this out?" Katniss asked her. 

Johanna shook her head, her hair was barely long enough to shift from the movement. "It was Plutarch and the doctors. They asked me what the assholes said a lot."

She took a drink and then scoffed annoyed. "And then they pulled footage of you saying them to see how I reacted."

"This all of them?" Katniss asked.

Johanna shook her head. "No, I still might kill you at any moment. So, be prepared for that."

Katniss reached over and grabbed her hand as a tear ran down her face. Johanna peered down at their hands for a moment. 

"They fucked us up good, didn't they?" Johanna joked through her tears.

Katniss nodded. "I'm going to make them pay."

Johanna nodded. It sounded tough and threatening, but she barely had the strength to believe it anymore. Katniss' conviction nearly won her over though. Johanna slowly leaned closer to the Girl on Fire. After a moment of lingering above each other's lips, Katniss closed in and kissed her softly. Johanna kissed her back with a rough desperation.

Katniss had to pull away to breathe but kept herself close to Johanna as she panted for breath. 

"I missed you," Katniss stated trying to keep an even tone. 

"I missed you too," Johanna replied with a nod as she kissed her again. 

"Woo! About damn time," someone called from the other side of their table. 

As they broke apart to see an excited Finnick, they were already being pulled from the table but an equally elated Annie.

"Dance floor, now," she instructed them. 

"What is this?" Johanna questioned as she flinched away from the elaborate dance happening in front of them. Finnick and Annie had already rejoined it beside Jessica and Trish.

Katniss smiled at her. "It's from home," she told her with a smile. "Come on," she said as she grabbed her hand and pulled them in beside Prim.


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess, Trish and the team arrive at the front and are forced into their first bit of fighting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the massive delay between chapters. I am trying to get back on track with this.

"Commander Jones," said a District 13 solider as he stood just inside the tent.

It didn't wake Jess. Trish didn't think it would. She got up from her cot, walked over to Jessica's and shook her awake.

"Ah what the fuck, Trish?" Jessica groaned as she rolled over.

"You're being summoned, Commander," Trish told her with a smirk.

"Right," Jessica replied as she got to her feet and looked at the solider.

"A meeting had been called. Main operations at 0800," he instructed.

She nodded at him. He turned and walked out. After throwing on her uniform and downing a cup of barely drinkable coffee, curtesy of Trish, Jess walked out of their tent and into the rest of the Rebel camp outside the Capital border. Her team and the Star Squad had been sent to join the larger force two days ago. Coin had barely given them 18 hours to recover from the wedding.

The meeting was rather standard, as Jessica had expected.

"So, we shipping out soon?" Kitty asked as Jessica approached her team gathered near her tent.

"Couple hours," Jess replied as she sat on crate beside Trish.

"Objectives?" Luke questioned.

"Same as before, take out the rebel forces near the border," she replied.

"And our Hogarth objective?" Pete asked.

Jessica glared at him, uncertain how to respond for a moment. She had no idea how the Hogarth objective had came to be and been so supported by her team. Trish would just tell her the team wasn't a fan of Coin and she didn't like them either.

"Also the same," Jessica replied. "If we get a chance, keep Katniss safe."

They all broke off to get ready to move out soon. Jessica followed Trish into their tent.

"Why does my team not trust Coin?" Jessica asked as she walked over to Trish, who was securing her armor and weapons to herself.

She took a deep breathe and shook her head slightly as she tightened her armor over her uniform. "We first got your location from Wendy Ross."

"Hogarth's wife?" Jess asked.

Trish nodded. "Coin didn't want to trust the intel. She didn't want to send anyone in to save you," Trish said struggling to hold back her emotions.

Jess twisted uncomfortably and peered at the ground for a moment before looking up at Trish. "What changed her mind?"

Trish smiled and gave a slightly teary laugh. "Your team did. They said they wouldn't follow anyone but you."

Jess fidgeted uncomfortably beside her. Trish let out a small warm, laugh. Jess barely flinched.

"Sorry," she told her.

"They really trust me that much?" Jess asked her.

Trish gave her armor straps a final tug and then placed her hands on her shoulders. "Yes," she replied simply. "Everyone of them. And me included."

She stood and held out her hand. "So, we are waiting for your orders, Commander."

Jessica smirked as she let Trish help her up. "I'm concerned about how much you are enjoying this."

Trish laughed as they walked outside to met the rest of the team.

The laughing had fully subsided when they reached their target. They quickly jumped out of the hovercraft and onto a still intacted building. Luke ripped the down off its hinges on the roof. Kurt quickly jumped around the stairs and determined they were all clear. The team made it down to the ground level and out onto the street.

"The street in front of you is clear for about the next 100 yards," Simmons said over their comms back in the base camp command. "Approaching force on the left after that."

Jess took a deep breath. "Good. Everyone move quickly and stay tight."

"Then we can fuck these bastards up?" Pete said.

"All in due course, Rambo," Kitty shot at him.

"Try to keep you ego in check for a bit," Jess told him as they started to move.

Jess lead them swiftly through the bombed out debris covered street. She stopped across a building at an intersection. She peered around the corner, pointing her gun down the cross street. It was just as deserted as all the others they had crossed.

"Clear," she told her team. "Keep moving."

Trish reached her side as they jogged around more broken and cracked streets and bits of concrete and cars. Jessica hit her ear piece to mute her comm.

"How close are we to the apartment?" Jess asked with a nervous smile.

Trish smiled in reply. "Rather far, actually. It might still be standing."

"I hope so," Jess replied.

"Me too."

"I was hoping to get back there," she told her.

Trish raised an eyebrow at her. "There? Not 12?"

Jess scoffed. "No place in 12 ever felt like ours."

Trish smiled. "But that apartment did."

Jess nodded.

"Well," Trish told her. "If we survive this, we can move back."

"If that's the prize, we ain't dying," Jessica told with a confident nod.

She hit her comm to unmute it. They jogged a few more feet.

"Take cover, to the right," Daisy yelled.

Jessica veered to her right. She dove at the base of the building, pulling Trish down beside her.

The rest of the team followed beside her. Nothing happened for a moment.

"What, Daisy?" Jess asked over the comms.

She didn't get a chance to answer. The building across from them started to shake and then crumble and start to collapse toward them.

"Move!" Jess yelled.

She scrambled to her feet, shoving Trish in front of her as the building come tumbling down behind her. She grabbed Trish under the arms and leapt forward. She twisted them in mid air and slammed onto her back on the uneven ground with more than enough room between them and the fallen building.

"Oh god," Trish exclaimed under her breathe as they got to their feet.

"Commander?" Simmons called from command.

"Yeah, Simmons," Jessica replied. "The building the north of us collapsed. Team, report."

"Mother fuck, that was close," Pete replied.

"Yeah good call, Daisy," Kitty replied. "Pete, Marie, Clarice and I are fine, Commander."

"Me too," Daisy answered with a groan.

"Luke?" Jess stated.

"Don't worry, Commander," he answered cheerfully. "Bobby and Kurt are fine too."

"Good," Jess replied, shooting a look of relief to Trish. "We're in front of the rumble. Can everyone get to us?"

"No problem."

"There is a sec."

Jess scoffed and waited for them to arrive in a matter of minutes.

"Everyone accounted for," Trish told Jess as they reached them.

She nodded. "Let's keep moving."

"Commander," Simmons yelled urgently from command. "Force approaching on your left."

"Everyone take cover," Jess called.

She peered around, glad that they were in an area with a fair amount of cover.

"Luke, Kitty, Pete, Trish, up front with me," Jess commanded as she ran toward one of the buildings flanking the street the forces were coming down. "The rest of you, take cover in the rumble back there. Bobby, Daisy, I want you front and center, ready to fire when we need it. Clarice, go wherever to find what works best for you."

"They're 40 yards out," Simmons called.

"Any chance for air support?" Luke asked.

"Seems unlikely," Trish stated.

"Quite, I'm afraid," Simmons added.

"Fuck 'em," Kitty added. "We don't need it."

"Yeah, we got this shit," Pete said excitedly.

"Cool the fuck off, everyone," Jess instructed amused. "Simmons, tell us when they are five out."

"'Course."

Jess pressed her head back against the wall of the building. She turned her head to peer over at Trish. She could barely see her eyes under the helmet that was slipping a little too far forward. Jess smirked as she pushed it back as into place. Trish anxiously leaned forward. Jess threw her professionalism and commanding status to the wind for a moment and gave into her kiss. It was rough and passionate and nervous, but it filled Jessica with the confidence and strength she needed for get through this.

"Five out," Simmons called as Jess quickly pulled away.

"Luke, Pete, go first," Jessica commanded. "The rest of us will be right behind you."

"Sure thing," Luke replied, as he and his unbreakable skin walked out in front of the Capital troops he sprayed with gunfire. Pete turned his skin to metal and did the same.

Jess and Kitty quickly picked off the first few soldiers who made it past them. When more started to come, Trish fired at them too as a few were hit with chunks of ice and others stumbled as the ground shook below them.

Jess saw a flash a blue appear behind multiple soldiers before they clenched the back of their necks and collapsed.

"Watch for Kurt," Jess called over the comms.

Jess left her cover of the building and headed out into the street. She bashed a few shoulders with the butt of her gun and just punched a few unconscious.

"Luke, how deep are you?" she called over the comms, realizing she could no longer see him.

"About a block or so," he yelled amid an array of punches and gunfire. "They got tanks coming. A lot of them."

"About 10 actually," Simmons added.

"We need to block the street," Jess stated as she threw three oncoming soldiers in different directions.

"I can do it," Daisy stated.

"No offense," Kitty stated as she passed through a spray of bullets and stabbed someone in the stomach. "But I think we might need more than an Earthquake."

"I can bring one of the buildings down," she replied matter-a-factly.

"Daisy, but can you? Safely, I mean," Simmons replied.

Daisy huffed. "Maybe. I'm not sure, Jemma. I'm not 100 percent sure. But we really don't have the time to test it, do we?" She said to everyone.

"Might be our best bet, Jones," Luke replied.

"Kurt, get her there," Jessica commanded.

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'm in position," Daisy stated.

"Everyone fall back to the second line," Jessica shouted.

Jessica heard a distressed call that she knew could only be Trish. It was coming from the opposite direction of the center line.

She ran toward it and found Trish fighting off a group of soldiers. Jess picked off the first with her gun but then it either jammed or ran out of bullets. Her nerves were too high for her to take note. She grabbed the next solider by the collar and threw her out of the way. She slammed into the wall of a nearby shaking building and landed on the ground in a heap. Jess yanked the next person she saw off of Trish and sent him flying across the street into the shaking building. Only it wasn't shaking anymore, it was crumbling.

"Trish, come on," Jess called as Trish had just finished stabbing a soldier in the neck. "We need to go."

They started to sprint down the street but every inch of it was shaking and cracking. A strong jolt sent them both onto the already bomb out pavement. Jess peered up for a moment and saw the building crumbling toward them.

"Fuck, fuck," Jess called frantically, as she rolled her and Trish into a space on the street she hoped would collide with a busted out window.


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica and Trish's team hits a set back as Katniss and Johanna get a moment alone, sort of.

Trish coughed violently as she came to. She painfully pulled herself into a sitting position. She panicked for a moment feeling the wetness on her back and arms. She jumped to her feet, thinking it was something frightening, like blood. She realized it was only water as she stumbled forward and barely caught herself against the dirt wall. 

_Dirt wall?_

She quickly pulled her hand away from the wall when she realized it was wet too. She peered around confused. What was the last thing she remembered? Something about an earthquake? No, that didn’t make any sense. Daisy. Daisy had caused an earthquake and the buildings started collapsing. They had jumped into the busted out window. They? 

_Jessica?_

Trish jumped as a voice in her head shouted the name as she thought it. No, it wasn’t in her head. It was her comm. 

“Jessica? Jessica, come in,” a voice yelled frantically through the comms. 

“Kitty?” Trish replied. 

“Trish?” Kitty answered. “Are you guys OK? Where are you?” 

Trish peered around confused again. She seemed to be underground, with about half of the collapsed building scattered around them. She squinted through the dust and saw where the building met the street and where part of the street seemed to have retracted. She scoffed to herself. It was just like that hallway back in the basement of the Tribute Center. The street had come away and opened to a pit beneath, where the building, she and Jess had fallen into. 

_Jess?_ she thought in panic again. 

“Jess?” she called. 

“She isn’t with you?” Kitty called over the comms. 

“I don’t know,” Trish replied as she stumbled with the dusty darkness. “We’re under the street. There must have been a trap that was triggered when the building collap—”

Trish quickly cut herself off and ran over to Jessica. She was lying face first in the inch or so of water. 

“Jess,” Trish yelled at her frantically as she turned her over and held her up. 

She heaved for breath and then coughed up water as she leaned over Trish’s arm. Trish gasped in a mixture of shock and relieve. 

“Did you find her?” Kitty asked. 

Jess groaned painfully. “Yeah, she found me,” she replied.

It was Kitty’s turn to sigh in relief. 

“Where are you guys? I can come down and get you,” Kitty told them. 

Jess peered at Trish and their surroundings for a moment and bit her lip uncertainly. “I’m not sure where we are and everything looks pretty god damn unstable.” 

“That really doesn’t matter for me,” Kitty added. 

“And if you accidently materialization in the middle of an exposed electrical wire?” Jessica replied. 

Kitty huffed in frustration. “What do you want me to do, Commander?” 

Jess scoffed. “Drop the fucking formalities, Kitty. What is happening up there?” 

“Daisy did good. Most of the tanks were crushed, but they sent re-enforcements. A lot of them,” Kitty replied. 

Jess anxiously peered at Trish, who gave her a feeble look of reassurance. 

“What have you heard from command?” Jess asked. 

“They told us to keep fighting until they are gone,” Kitty replied. “We aren’t doing that bad but it seems the regular rebel force a street down is struggling.” 

Jessica raked her brain for the best plan of action. She was at a blank for a moment. She didn’t have any fucking idea how to handle this. She had kept Trish alive in the arena, she had commanded the Quarter Quell escaped. Those were the two biggest missions she had planned and executed outside of training. She tried to imagine in was only that to calm herself down, just a training exercise in an abandoned crop field in District 11. 

She took a deep breath and looked away from Trish, so she didn’t have to see her reaction. “Deputy Commander Pryde, I am transferring my command of the Super Recruits or whatever fancy fuck name we have been given over to you. You keep the team safe. Follow whatever orders you are given but give the highest priority to those from Jeri Hogarth, all right?” 

“Understood, Commander,” Kitty replied. 

“Good,” Jessica replied. 

She hit her comm to mute it. Trish did the same. 

“Hogarth?” Trish asked peering at her instantly. 

Jessica nodded as she tried to push herself up with her left arm. She grunted in pain and pulled her arm toward her. Trish grabbed her wrist, turned her arm over and pushed up the ripped sleeve of her uniform. 

“She doesn’t trust Coin,” Jessica told her painfully as Trish inspected the gash that ran down her forearm. “Thinks she is going to try to get Katniss killed.” 

“Just Katniss?” Trish asked in annoyance. 

Jessica smirked. “The bitch doesn’t think you are enough of a threat to worry about. Clearly she hasn’t been to a movie theater or watched regular television in the last five years.” 

Trish laughed slightly as she poured water from her canteen over the gash on Jessica’s arm. “This doesn’t look that bad.” 

“Didn’t think so,” Jess told her as got to her feet. 

Trish followed her lead. “So what now?” 

Jessica shrugged. “The Hogarth Objective?” 

“Find Katniss and keep her safe?” Trish added. 

Jess nodded. 

“And how are we going to do that?” Trish questioned. 

Jessica shrugged. “Star Squad were heading deeper into the Capital, right?” 

Trish huffed and nodded. “We do not know where, Jess. But, we are underground now,” she said. The water was flowing slowly into the dark tunnel behind them. “But this probably leads to the subway line eventually. And I do know my way around this city rather well.” 

Katniss jumped and pointed her gun at the ceiling of the tunnel at the sound of a muffled explosion and falling bits of concrete. 

From the look at Lt. Jackson’s face as she turned around to face her team, she wasn’t the only one to overreact. 

“Relax everyone,” Jackson told them. “There is still fighting going on above us.” 

“Lucky us,” Finnick said in a joking whisper to soldier beside him, but Katniss was able to overhear though a member of the film crew was between them. 

She couldn’t fault Finnick for being so nice to Johanna since she had randomly arrived the day before. She had been dropped off at their position by a stark District 13 team. Katniss assumed if they had been from any other district they would have looked confused. But not the District 13 soldiers, not Coin’s soldiers. Even Johanna was confused as to what she was doing there. She had told Katniss as much as much when she had arrived the night before. Her mother and Hogarth’s wife said she wasn’t ready to fight, but some doctor she had only seen once cleared her and she had been shipped out to join the Star Squad. 

Katniss had been keeping her distance because she knew she could go into a murder rampage at any moment and Finnick had been staying as close as possible to stop her if she did. 

That changed though when Jackson had them stop for the night. They found an elevated area out of the water they had been wading through for hours. There wasn’t much room so they had to sit shoulder to shoulder on both sides leaving them nearly knee to knee with the people in the across row. Katniss felt increasingly nervous as she found herself seated shoulder to shoulder with Peeta and knee to knee with Johanna. 

“You still don’t know what to say, do you?” Johanna asked her quietly after it seemed like everyone else was asleep. 

It was Katniss’ watch and she was wide awake. 

“I don’t know what I can say, Jo--,” Katniss quickly cut herself off, remembering that ‘Johanna’ was on the list of things she shouldn’t say that she had been given at the wedding. It was shoved into her uniform pocket. 

Johanna scoffed herself. “That’s our issue, isn’t it?” 

Katniss took a deep breath and nodded. “I never knew what to say around you.” 

Johanna nearly smiled. “I always just said what I wanted to. Was probably the wrong thing.” 

“It wasn’t,” Katniss replied seriously. 

Johanna nervously peered up at her. They met eyes threw the darkness. Despite, the multiple possible dangers in the darkened tunnels around them, the near strangers of teammates beside them and the sleeping Finnick and Peeta beside them, Johanna felt like it was only them for the first time since they were in the arena together in the Quarter Quell. She couldn’t be honest with her then and she wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass her by now. 

“You mean that?” she asked. 

Katniss nodded. “My whole life has been part of a plan or a plot or a campaign since….” 

“You just wanted to save your sister,” Johanna added. 

Katniss nodded. “But, you weren’t a part of that. I don’t care what the Cap- has done or what Distric—what those underground assholes what from me. I can be there Mo—face but I only want to be it if I can be with you,” she eventually stammered out. 

Johanna wasn’t quite sure how long she had been wanting her to say something like that. It might have been since she asked her to leave with her in the arena, it might have been the when she watched her win her games, it might have been when she was just a young girl from 12 who risked everything for her sister. But, she had been wanting her to return the feelings that had been tearing her apart for so long. 

Johanna shoved Finnick’s head off her shoulder and onto the District 13 soldier’s shoulder to his other side. She leaned forward and knelt in front of Katniss. It was so dark in the tunnel she could barely see her but she could feel her longing and her tingling hand as it reached for the back of her neck and pulled her closer. She kissed her passionately and for a moment forgot that they were in the middle of a war zone, that so many people wanted Katniss to be in love with the sleeping boy beside her and that if she accidently uttered her name amid their moment of bliss it could all be over. 

For a moment, it was simple and easy and loving. Just like how Johanna had always dreamed it would be.


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica and Trish get lost in the tunnels under the Capital.

"Jesus Christ!" Trish exclaimed.

"Holy shit," Jessica exclaimed as a second later as they spun around and pointed their weapons into the darkness.

They both stood there tensely for a moment. 

"It was nothing," Trish declared in weak reassurance.

"I doubt that," Jessica replied. 

Trish huffed and shrugged. "All right. I agree, it was certainly whispering something."

"'It?' You mean the darkness?" Jessica pointed out as they tensely walked through the darkened tunnels with their weapons at the ready.

Trish shrugged. "I have no idea. Any luck with your comm? Because I think we are lost."

Jess shook her head. "Nah, I've tried every channel and I can't get an answer."

"I'm sorry," Trish stated. 

"Yeah, I'm really disappointed that you don't know the underground layout of the city you've only lived in for a few years," Jessica shot back.

Trish sighed and then jumped as screaming and gunfire echoed down the tunnels. She peered over at Jess for a moment. She nodded in reply and they sprinted through the water toward the commotion. 

Trish screamed and dropped her gun as something flew through the darkness at them. Jess quickly fired at it. She got it and it went limp in midair and flopped into the swallow water at their feet. Jess shined the light on her gun down at it.

"Ah, the fuck?" she called as she jumped back from it. 

"What it is?" Trish asked nervously as she quickly seized her gun and pointed it at the lifeless thing. 

"Some type of mutt, I guess," Jess stated. "It looks like the monster things from..."

Trish scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Cabin Fever," she said the name of the one teen horror movie she did get cast in annoyed. 

There was another wave of screaming and gunfire and the two sprinted toward it again. 

"Go! Go! Go!" A member of the Star Squad yelled to Peeta, who was frantically scaling the ladder out of the mutt filled room Jess and Trish had just ran into. 

Jess instantly went into the thick of it and started shooting and tossing aside the monster-mutts. Trish was frozen in fear for a moment and shakily tried to point her gun at one of them. 

"Cressida!" Trish heard Messalla yell from the ladder. A mutt had caught the director on the leg and yanked her down from the ladder. 

Trish barely saw her fall into the water. Trish steadied herself enough to aim her gun and fire at the mutt holding Cressida in the water. It jerked unnaturally when the bullets hit it and sprayed purple-reddish blood. 

Trish run over, pulled her out of the water and supported her as she struggled for breath and then coughed out water. 

"Thank you," she struggled to say as Trish pulled her to her feet. 

Trish didn't get a chance to say anything back before more mutts were on her. She struggled with one and then beat it repeatedly with the butt of her gun.

Jessica grabbed one around its scaly and slimy arm and flung it at the wall as hard as she could. It broke into an unnaturally pile of limbs and oddly colored blood. 

"Johanna, go!" she heard Finnick yell. 

He was stabbing mutts with his trident as Johanna was standing in the water panting and clenching her hair, ignoring the mutts around her. Jessica ran over shooting two mutts and throwing aside another before she reached her. 

She grabbed Johanna's shoulders and held her there as she attempted to struggle away. She angrily met her eyes. 

"Snap out of it," Jessica told her in forceful, compassion. 

"It's-I-no...it's too much, too many," she widely stammered.

"No it isn't," Jessica told her forcefully. "This isn't shit. I was beside you in that cell for eight months. You carved that hole, you sasses those guards and you made it through. This is nothing compared to that."

Johanna nodded at her. 

"You get to that fucking ladder and get to your girlfriend," Jessica told her.

Johanna nodded again and made a break for the ladder. Jessica trailed picking off mutts as best she could. Johanna scaled the ladder as Jessica fought off the mutts below it. A few flung themselves at the ladder and started to climb up.

Katniss quickly shot arrows around Johanna, down at them. Once they hit the water, Jessica shot them and kicked them with full strength. 

"Jess, we have to do something," Trish yelled as she fought off the mutts charging at her and Cressida.

"We can't let these fuckers get to the surface," Finnick yelled as he stabbed through a mutt with his trident.

"They aren't stopping," Cressida yelled. "We need another solution."

"Like what?" Finnick yelled. 

"Stop them from getting up and deal with them ourselves," Trish stated. 

"Don't start with your fucking death wish," Jessica called at her. 

"It's not a death wish, Jess. This is seeming rather impossible and the Hogarth Objective," Trish called as she sliced through a mutt with her largest knife. 

Jessica huffed for a moment. She grabbed the metal ladder that lead out for the tunnels. She torn it off and threw it at oncoming mutt.

"What are you doing?" Katniss called down at her. 

"Saving your ass," she replied. "Go to Tigris'" Jessica yelled up at them.

"I don't know what that is," Katniss yelled down. "We aren't leaving you guys."

Johanna popped beside Katniss in the opening. "I know it," she told Jessica.

"Good," Jessica yelled. "You get her there and keep her save, all right? Don't worry about us. We got this."

Johanna nodded.

Jessica turned at the sound of Finnick yelling behind her. A mutt was chomping at his arm. Trish through a knife into its chest but it barely slowed it down. Cressida frantically reloaded her weapon but another one jumped at her before she could be of any help. 

"You got a gernade or a bomb? Anythjng to blow these fuckers sky high?" Jessica yelled up at Katniss and Johanna.

Katniss nodded as she unhooked something from her waist. "Yeah, I do."

"Give us 30 seconds and then drop it," Jessica yelled.

Katniss peered down at her uncertainly for a moment and then nodded. 

"Ok," she yelled down.

Jessica nodded up at her. 

"Fall back!" She yelled as she ran toward Cressida. "Shit's going to blow. Get into the tunnel."

Jessica grabbed the slimy skin of the mutt and tossed to off Cressida. She frantically pulled her up and then ran toward the tunnel. Trish and Finnick stabbed the mutt on top of him until it went limp. He shoved to off and got to his feet. The four of them ran toward the tunnels. Finnick jumped through first. Jessica nudged Cressida through and waited for Trish, who had fallen behind and winced in pain every time her left foot hit the ground. Jessica helped her through the opening and then jumped threw after her.

Katniss held the hollo over the opening and peered at it uncertainly. She glanced up at Johanna, who was still beside her. 

"What if they didn't get out?" Joahnna asked.

Katniss almost smiled. "It's Jessica Jones, Trish Walker and Finnick. They made it out."

Katniss held it further away from her. "Nightlock, nightlock, nightlock," she said as she dropped it down.

Johanna quickly nudged her away from the opening and she obeyed. They scurrying to the surface as the explosive went off behind them.


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group gets separated after the mutts attack.

Cressida thought she would hit solid ground after she dove through the tunnel door, away from the explosion. She did for a moment before she was overtaken by the disorienting feeling of suddenly falling, like she was having a nightmare.

As soon as she realized the nothing around her was reality, she reached for something to cling to. She had her hand on something for a moment. A pipe, maybe. But it seemed to twist and spin out of her hand. She only realized her surroundings had been spinning when she slammed into a stagnant pool of water and the vertigo hit her all at once. 

She forced herself to the surface, heaving and coughing but was able to find a ledge. She drug herself onto it and tried to breathe. 

Cressida struggled to find the switch for her gun light amid the pitch blackness of wherever she was. She jumped slightly at a scream of pain in the distance. She heard something moving through the swallow water she found herself in. She pointed her weapon at the noise and nearly fired when she finally got the light on.

Jessica sighed and lowered her gun. 

"I nearly shot you," Cressida told her as she got to her feet.

"That wouldn't have helped you chances with her," Jessica quipped.

"Clearly," Cressida replied annoyed. "Do you know where she is?"

Jessica shined her light down the tunnel. "No, but that scream sounded like-"

"Finnick, I know," Cressida answered. "What the hell happened?"

Jess shrugged. "No clue. This city is built like a fucking arena."

"Or at least this part is," Cressida added.

They stood in anxious silence for a moment until both snapped their guns up and pointed them in the direction of the distance scream.

"We should move that way," Jess stated.

Cressida nodded and they both headed down the darkened tunnel. Jessica tried to ignore the faint screaming in front of them, somewhere, and her anxious feeling that something was going to jump out at them again. 

She focused on actually following what she had learned in the crash course military training her team had been given by the District 13 soldiers. She scanned the tunnel and moved with as much stealth as she could. She raised an eyebrow in confusion as she realized Cressida was doing the same.

"I didn't think you'd be this good at the fighting stuff," Jess said to fill the tense silence. 

"I spent six months at a military training facility in District 2," Cressida explained. "For research."

Jessica nodded awkwardly.

"Maybe I should have stayed longer since I still needed you to save my ass back there," she added. 

Jess shrugged. "I don't think those things would have been in their training."

Cressida laughed slightly. "Thank you, by the way. For a second there I wasn't sure if you would or not."

Jess scoffed. "I don't like you, Cressida. But, I wasn't going to let you die. We're on the same side."

Cressida nodded as they both turned their backs to each other and pointed their guns down a different section of tunnel. 

"Clear," Cressida said softly.

"Clear," Jess added.

They headed down the tunnel toward the faint screaming again. 

"I'm sorry," Cressida said quickly. She paused for a moment and then forced herself to continue. "About what I said back in 13."

"We don't have to do this," Jessica uncomfortably grumbled at her. 

"No, I need to. I got so mad at you because you were right. I know Patsy Walker, I don't know Trish," Cressida explained.

"They're the same person."

"Don't flatter me," she shot back. "Patsy is an act and I was just part of the act," she said with a sad sigh.

Jessica flinched at the memory that came flooding back to her. It was of footage she saw on some shitty television in some dirty motel room. She wanted to keep it to herself. She wanted to believe she didn't owe anything to Trish's director friend. She wanted to ignore the feeling in the air that they weren't going to make it home and she therefore needed to confess. 

"It wasn't all an act," Jessica told her.

Cressida peered over at her with a look of confusion. "She told you that?"

"She didn't have to. I saw it in some gossip segment about the two of you while I was...dead," Jessica explained with a shrug.

"You watched that garbage?"

"Not usually," Jessica said in her defense. "It fucking trashy and creepy and-"

"Invasive," Cressida added. 

"Yeah," Jessica replied. "But I felt so shitty about what I did to her, I watched all the garbage. And sometimes in it, she looked happy...with you," she struggled to say.

Cressida nodded. "I think she was, for a time. But, I was never a match for you."

"Don't need to tell me that," Jess joked with a cocky smile.

Cressida shook her head at her until the faint screaming grew slightly louder as another, higher pitched voice joined it.

Jessica and Cressida let their military training fall to the wayside and sprinted down the tunnel. 

The faint screaming intensified for a moment and then seemed to fade away. Cressida pushed herself as hard as she could to keep up with Jessica. 

"No, no, no, no. Finnick. Finnick," Jessica could barely hear Trish say when she had almost reached them. She seized her gun that was hanging against her side and pointed the light forward.

Trish jumped and peered directly at it for a moment before recoiling. Through her tears and panting, she seemed to register who was there.

"He won't move. I think he's dead," Trish cried.

Jessica flinched but knelt down beside Finnick. He was soaking wet, partially from the water that had drenched them all and partially from the purplish blood from the monster-mutts and his own blood. Jessica had a terrible sinking feeling. It was a lot of his own, too much of it. His left arm looked like it had been nearly gnawed off at the shoulder. And that was far from the end of his injuries. 

For a moment, Jessica found herself being shocked that he even managed to stay alive and screaming as long as he had. 

She placed her hand on a non-blood soaked part of his neck. She felt nothing, just as she had expected to. 

Trish broke into a sob and reached out for Jess. It was only then did Jessica noticed that she was sitting, not kneeling beside Finnick. She was shifted awkwardly to her right and her left leg looked bad, almost as bad it did the night of their one month anniversary in the arena. 

"Fuck, Trish," Jessica said under her breath as she crouched in front of her and held her tightly as she sobbed into her shoulder.

"Oh my god," Cressida exclaimed out of breath as she shined her gun light at them.

Jessica turned to look at her as she slowly fell to her knees in shock and stared at Finnick's lifeless body. She continued to struggle for breath as she met eyes with Jessica. They peered at each other in desperation to the sound of Trish's sobs.


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss and company escape danger for a brief moment, until they are faced with the one danger Katniss had forgotten to worry about.

Katniss ran as fast as she could through the empty subway platform. 

“This way. We are almost to the surface!” Messella yelled as he turned toward the stairs to the surface. 

He was far from the faster runner, but he was leading the group for he, Castor and Pollux knew the city the best. Pollux was staying near the back with his brother, who had been bitten on the arm by one of the monster-mutts. They had quickly dressed the wound, along with the one on Gale’s hand and Peeta’s leg after Katniss dropped the hollo into the hell of the tunnels. 

They had all thought they had a moment to relax. Katniss figured their luck would be short lived. She was right and barely 10 minutes later their surroundings started to twist, crumple and collapse. They went running for the service stairs to the subway platform and were rushing through it to the street hoping it would still be there. 

“Shit!” Gale yelled as he dodged a golden beam of light shooting down from the ceiling. The platform tiles it hit smoked and cracked. 

“What the hell was that?” Katniss called. 

“Whoa!” Johanna yelled as she grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back away from where a beam of light sent smoking tiles flying up into the air.  
Everyone stopped for a moment. 

Peeta glanced between the unknown amount of beams of light in front of them and the crumbling platform behind them. “We have to keep going.” 

Pollux nodded. 

A large chunk of the roof fell nearly five feet behind them and they all went sprinting forward to the stairs. Katniss tried not to think about what could happen and just ran forward as fast as she could and hoped for the best. It was working until a beam of light hit Messella and he turned into nothing right in front of her. The horror forced her to stop and Johanna nearly slammed into her. She had seen it too and also stopped in horror. 

Katniss turned to her concerned and barely recognized the bewilderment and horror on her face. Katniss panicked for a moment, thinking Johanna’s brief words of encouragement from Jessica Jones had worn off. Katniss didn’t know what to do. She had no idea want to say and still was unsure what she even could say. She was desperately searching for something when Peeta screamed and Pollux wailed behind them. 

They both jumped at the outburst and turned. Pollux had fallen to his knees before a fading golden beam that contained only small traces of his brother. 

“Come on!” Peeta called as he tried to pull him to his feet. He barely moved and Katniss ran over to help. She and Peeta got him up and to the bottom of the stairs as the platform twisted into nothingness. 

“Where are we going?” Gale yelled back, as he was now blindly leading the group through the square above the subway platform. 

“This way,” Johanna called as she ran ahead and turned right down the street. 

Katniss peered to the left as she heard what sounded like gravel being crushed beneath tires, but that was impossible. There weren’t any cars on the roads anymore and they didn’t have gravel roads in the Capital. 

“Johanna!” Katniss screamed as she went running towards her. 

Johanna spun around to face her and then quickly jumped to the ground as bullets from the gun atop the oncoming tank whizzed over her. As soon as Katniss could get a clear shot down the street, she fired an explosive arrow at the gunman. It barely pierced his side but exploded on impact, sending most of the tank ablaze. The Capital soldiers on both sides went driving away from it. Katniss managed to pick off a few with arrows as Gale hurled a grenade at the tank causing a larger explosion and Pollux gunned down one or two of them. 

The three of them crouched and run behind chunks of what looked like an office building that littered the street. 

Katniss whipped around when she heard Johanna grunt in pain as she writhed against the broken pavement. She clenched the side of her helmet before turning onto her side and forcing it off. 

“Johanna!” Katniss called as she gotten out of her hiding place and ran toward her.

“Katniss,” Gale anxiously said as he popped over the cover and fired off a few crossbow bolts at the oncoming forces. 

Katniss quickly knelt beside her and stayed as low to the ground as possible. “Hey, hey,” she said nervously as she placed her hands on her shoulders. Johanna grunted painfully through clenched teeth and peered up at Katniss. 

She gasped and anxiously pulled her hands away from her, realizing she wasn’t hurt. Or at least not how she thought she was going to be. Johanna quickly shot into a sitting position. Katniss fell backward and started to push herself away. Her boots crunching against the pavement and her hands scrapping against the bits of buildings. 

“No, no, don’t .Please,” Katniss pleaded. 

Johanna continued to come at her with an unrecognizable look in her eyes. Katniss continued to scoot away and her hand hit a brick on the street. She grasped it and panted nervously for a moment. 

“Fight it,” Katniss said, knowing it was probably a useless, stupid thing to say. Johanna didn’t even seem to register that she had said anything. Katniss picked up the brick and hurled it at her. It hit her on the right bicep. She turned as she clenched at her bleeding arm, giving Katniss enough time to stand, load her bow and point it at her. 

Johanna angrily turned and peered at her, still clenching her wound that was now covering her hand in blood. 

“Stop,” Katniss commanded her. “Please, stop,” she said weaker, nearly choking on her emotions 

Johanna moved closer to her. Katniss panted as she seriously considered releasing the arrow as she felt tears stream down her face. She jumped as someone yelled as they flung themselves at Johanna and slammed her to the ground. She hit the uneven pavement with a thud and grunted at the person as they stabbed her in the chest with a syringe. Johanna grunted at the male figure forcefully and then more calmly and calmly until she laid her head against the pavement and barely moved. 

Katniss lowered her bow and tried to comprehend what had just happened. 

“What…” Katniss was barely able to get out, astounded that it had taken her so long to realize it was Peeta. 

He turned toward her and motioned for her to get down, as the Capital soldiers were still firing at them. Gale and Pollux were briefly popping up, out of their cover to fire back and hurl grenades. Katniss crouched down and moved toward Peeta, who held up the syringe and ensured it was empty. 

“A sedative,” he explained. “She gave one to me and one to Finnick. She said she could trust us to use it if the time came.” 

Katniss shock her head and took a deep breath as she reached Johanna’s side. Peeta had landed mostly on top of her, but climbed off and knelt beside her left side as Katniss reached her right. She peered down at her sadly. 

Johanna struggled against the sedative for a moment. But Katniss could see it in her eyes. They quickly faded from hatred to fear and disappointment. 

Katniss struggled to keep her tears contained. “It’s fine. It’s gonna be fine.”  
Johanna managed to give a very small nod. Katniss could tell from her eyes that she would be smirking and giving some kind of encouraging quip if she could. Katniss leaned down and kissed her, despite her barely being able to kiss her back. 

“I’m going to make them pay,” Katniss hissed back at her as she stood. “You guard her,” she instructed Peeta. 

He nodded. “I will, Katniss.” 

She nodded back and then turned and ran toward Gale and Pollux’s cover. She fired as many arrows as she could, sending multiple soldiers flying or spinning down onto the pavement, before she dove into the building bit beside Pollux. 

He motioned back to Johanna and then gave Katniss a thumbs up with a shrug. 

“Yeah,” Katniss said with a nod as she looked at him directly. “She’s good.” 

He smiled and patted her on the shoulder. They both perked up and peered over their cover. Katniss heard a whoosh in front of them and Pollux saw at red light appear behind them. The Mockingjay peered ahead in confusion as two large men appeared in the midst of the approaching troops with a quick flash of blue and black around them. They both rapidly fired at the troops and both seemed not to be phased by the numerous amount of bullets that were fired at them. The one had metallic skin but the other just looked like a normal man. 

Katniss squinted at the normal looking one for a moment and then realized it was Jessica Jones’ friend, Luke, who used to run that bar back in 12. Pollux flinched and briefly pointed his gun at the girls and one boy that appeared out of the red circle of light behind them. The first girl and the boy climbed over their cover and into another red circle that one of the other girls seemed to project and then landed much closer to the soldiers. 

Katniss and Pollux peered at each other confused for a moment. He shrugged and then turned toward the oncoming force and started shooting again. Katniss did the same until she heard the whoosh sound much closer to her. 

She yelped as a young woman and a boy were suddenly beside her. 

“Sorry,” the boy said. 

“Calm down, Katniss,” the young woman said as she peered over the cover and then peered at Katniss once she seemed to decide everything was going all right. “Kitty Pryde, from Jessica Jones’ team.” 

Katniss weakly nodded at her. Kitty peered from over at Gale and then at Peeta and Johanna behind them. She took a deep breath and then shook her head slightly. She peered at the boy and then nodded toward the main fighting. He nodded back and disappeared. 

“Ah, what?” Katniss called, in confusion. 

The one girl that remained beside Kitty tried to suppress a laugh. Kitty glared at her and then turned her attention to Katniss. “You need to keep moving,” Kitty told her. “We can handle this.” 

Katniss peered anxiously from the worn out looking Pollux and Gale to the nervous Peeta and drugged out Johanna. She briefly glanced at Kitty before nodding and hitting Pollux on the shoulder and motioning back to Peeta and Johanna. 

“Daisy, you go with them,” Kitty instructed the girl beside her. 

She nodded. 

“You know the objective,” Kitty stated at her. 

She nodded. “Sure thing, commander.” 

Kitty nodded and seemed to tense in fear for a moment. “Good,” she replied. “Then you know how important their safety is. And if anyone is likely to get them back in touch with command it is you. 

Daisy peered at her and nodded with a small smile. She ran over toward Gale and pulled him back toward the others. 

Kitty peered at them nervously before she went running through the cover and right into the center of the fighting.


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss and company regroup and organize as Jessica and Cressida come to an understanding in the tunnels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay. This chapter jumps around a lot, but it follows these scenes from Mockingjay pretty closely so hopefully it isn't too confusing. Thanks for reading.

"Are you fucking insane? No," Gale called at Peeta and Katniss in the basement of Tigris' shop. 

Daisy peered over from the old radio she was fiddling with trying to get in contact with command. 

"Whoa!" She called at them, not realizing Gale had a gun pointed at Johanna. "Didn't you drug her and stop whatever that was?"

Johanna was on the ground, handcuffed around a pipe. Katniss was kneeling beside her holding the key. Peeta was defensing standing between them and Gale's gun. The other member of their team was sitting at the bottom of the stairs. He was peering at them tensely but looked like he didn't want to get involved. 

"Yes I did," Peeta stated, peering around Gale to answer Daisy. 

Gale grunted at him. "It could still happen again."

"It won't," Katniss called. 

"Regardless, let's not shoot each other," Daisy chimed in. 

"Why the fuck are you here?" Gale hissed at her. "We don't even know you. We don't need a Level 20 freak babysitter."

Daisy huffed at him, tempted to make the ground below him shake. 

"He's right," Johanna was finally able to admit. 

Katniss peered over at her. Johanna sighed seeing the sad look in her eye. "We can't know that, Katniss."

She leaned in closer to her. "I won't trip up again. I promise."

Johanna pulled her handcuffed wrists away from Katniss. "Just leave it, ok? I don't want to feel that again because you yell my name to save my life."

Katniss sighed in defeat and nodded as she slipped the key into her pocket. "You have anymore of that drug?"

Johanna shook her head. "Finnick has the only other one."

Katniss nodded and stood. "Then we need to end this as fast as possible."

She turned and faced the others. Gale was groaning to himself as he lowered his gun. Peeta weakly smiled. 

"Isn't there a map?" Katniss asked as she walked to the table of junk by the old radio. Gale reached over her and grabbed it. He set it on the floor and turned it on. A hologram map of the Capital project at waist level. 

Pollux walked over and Johanna stand, with her arms around the pipe and peered over. 

"Sector D-7," she called over. "That's Snow's mansion."

Pollux zoomed in on it. The giant compound was only a few blocks away from the tiny building that was surrounded in purple light, signally their location. 

"What's out plan?" Peeta asked. 

"Yes," Daisy whispered excitedly at the radio she repositioned the headphones. 

"I go in and kill Snow," Katniss said matter-a-factly.

"Star Squad to Base Command," Daisy said into the microphone. 

"Katniss, you can't just waltz into the most heavily guarded building in Panem and assassinate the president," Johanna pointed out. 

Pollux nodded in agreement. 

"We don't have enough people," Peeta added. 

Daisy slowly turned the dial on the radio. "Star Squad to Base Command." Daisy grasped gaining everyone's attention from the sound of the gasp in her ear. "Base command, you reading me?" Daisy asked in relief. 

"Dais-Star Squad, yes," Simmons answered. "Are you all right?"

"For the most part," she said through the radio. She turned to the others. "I think I just found us some back up."

\---

Trish was struggling for breath, sweating and shaking slightly as Jessica held her on the floor in the tunnels. Jessica peered up at Cressida who had flinched at nothing and pointed her gun down the tunnel. She shook her head and lowered it. The light hit Finnick's body for a moment and she quickly pointed it toward a different part of the ground. 

Trish sounded like she was trying to cough but was too weak. Jessica peered down at her, biting the inside of her check to try and calm herself down. She was desperately trying not to panic. 

"We can't move her, can we?" Cressida asked the thought that plaguing Jessica's mind as she looked down at the two of them. 

Jessica shook her head. "She's in shook. I-I think, but this is worse than last time," she answered.

Cressida moved toward them and knelt down. She was about ask what she did last time the she remembered watching in the 73rd games. It seems rather unlikely that medicine was going to come falling out of the sky for them. And even if it could, Trish was beginning to look like she needed more than that. 

Cressida ended up just making desperate eye contact with Jessica. "You should go for help," she told her. 

Part of Jessica wanted to tell her to fuck off. She wasn't going to leave Trish behind, again. 

"One of us had to go get help," Cressida told her. "Or she might not..."

Cressida couldn't bring herself to say it. Based on Jessica's expression she really didn't need to. 

"You know this city better than I do," Jess told her. 

Cressida nodded for it was a good point. "You have a better chance of surviving long enough to find help."

Jessica nodded for it was a good point. "I'll go," she replied quietly. 

She exhaled anxiously through her teeth and peered down at Trish. "Trish," Jess said to see if she could get her attention. "Trish," Jess said again. She didn't react that time either. "Oh fuck," Jessica said as she realized she wasn't shaking anymore and she couldn't hear her breathing. She laid her back against the floor and knelt beside her. 

Cressida anxiously peered at Jessica. Jess placed a shaking hand above Trish's mouth and sighed in relief when she felt weak breath against it. Cressida reached out to check her pulse. 

"She's just unconscious," Cressida said to reassure them both. 

Jessica sighed and nodded as she sat back on her feet, feeling overwhelmed. "How the fuck am I supposed to...I can't leave without saying good..."

"Hey," Cressida called at her seriously. "You aren't dying."

"What you a fucking psychic now?" Jessica shot back.

Cressida smirked at her. "The Capital has been trying to kill for nearly three years."

Jess had to smile a bit, though she was slightly annoyed her encouragement had worked so well. "And they have a shit success rate."

Jess knelt closer to Trish. She gazed down at her anxiously and lightly kissed her on the forehead. The feeling of Trish cold sweaty skin almost stole all her confidence but she decided to let it anger her instead. She quickly glanced at Cressida, who simply nodded at her, and she started sprinting down the tunnel, keeping her eyes peeled for a way out.

\---  
Johanna kept her head down and grabbed the hilt of the knife in her pocket even tighter. She peered as far up the Capital street as she could but she didn't have eyes on Katniss anymore. There were too many Capital residents, too many people that would probably try to kill her, or Peeta who was beside her, if they spotted them. And that even considering the Peackeepers lining the street.

Back at Tigris' Daisy had gotten word from Simmons at base command and Hogarth at command that they should start moving to the President's Mansion with the rest of the people still inside the Capital. 

Johanna didn't like the idea. She had voiced that. She had voiced it a lot. It wasn't much better than when Katniss stupidly suggested walking into Snow's house and putting an arrow through his chest. 

_That basically what we are fucking doing, Johanna thought._

Katniss and Gale had left first with the most weapons. Daisy went behind them, promising to take out anyone who looked they noticed them. Johanna and Peeta were the last ditch back up. 

Apparently more support was coming. The promise was from Hogarth, not Coin, so everyone was a bit more keen to trust it. Johanna still didn't, not really.

"You don't trust her?" Katniss had asked Johanna just before they left the shop. 

"Coin might still know," Johanna whispered, knowing she was sounding paranoid. "She wants you dead. Me being here is a prime example of that."

"That doesn't matter anymore. Ending this is all that matter. Killing Snow is how we end this."

Katniss gazed at her sternly. Johanna felt herself weakly smile as she nearly crumbled at the look. It was the one she had all the times she would end the Capital, the one that had inspired half the nation to rebel, the one of a too determined tribute with a handful of berries. The Mockingjay had made her decision. 

For a brief moment, Johanna realized she would be all right if that was their last ever encounter. She had gotten to see that look one last time. Johanna pulled her close and kissed her firmly. Katniss did the same. 

"I'll see you soon," Katniss called back as she threw up her hood and followed Gale out. 

Back on the street, Johanna and Peeta jumped at the sound of gunfire. They both peered around, not being able to tell if it was coming from in front of them or behind them. They slowly realized it was all around them. Peeta gazed over at Johanna. She nodded and they both started running foreword. 

Johanna was starting to loss sight of him when a Peacekeeper slammed into her. She fell back into the ground and her bulky disguise cost nearly fell off. The Peacekeeper peered down at her uncertainly. 

_Glad I'm still not that famous._

She laughed a bit as she pulled her knife out of her pocket and quickly lunged at him and jabbed it into his thigh. He fell forward screaming. She elbowed him in the back of the head and he silently collapsed. 

_Where the fuck is this backup?_

She picked up his gun and started running toward the mansion. She shot at a few oncoming Peacekeepers. Then she jumped back as one seemed to fall out of the sky and land right in front of her. She gazed foreword confused until she saw who was tossing Capital soldiers and Peacekeepers off the roof of a nearby building. 

_Well that works, I guess._

Jessica peered up at the sound of an approaching hovercraft. She watched it fly over her head toward the mansion. She went sprinting in that direction over the rooftops. Johanna did the same on the ground. 

The first explosion made Johanna stop for a moment. She wanted to keep moving but her panicked mind wasn't letting her. There wasn't that much room between the mansion and her. Maybe she wasn't ok with that being the last time she saw Katniss.

"Fuck," Jessica called landed on a rooftop and starting running toward the other edge. She veered toward the street and jumped down. She saw more rebel troops arrive and the medics start to flood in. 

But something didn't feel right. 

_Or sound right? What the fuck is that? Sponsor gifts?_

She spotted Katniss in front of her. She was running into the wreckage. 

"No!" Jessica yelled as she sprinted at her as fast as she could and jumped in a last ditch effort to reach her. 

She was midair when another explosion went off. She went flying backward and blacked out after she smashed into the roof of a blow out tank.


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hogarth worries about Coin's plans for the future as multiple others spend time in the hospital.

Hogarth sighed in annoyance as she finished the whiskey in front of her. She leaned back in her chair to peer around the absurdly large circular table in the president's mansion. A third. That was how many of the people that were not from District 13. Only a third. 

Hogarth wasn't liking this. Though she feared it might go this way, she was hoping it wouldn't. Coin had been yammering on for much too long now. They were all supposed to be discussing what the next move was. 

The war had ended. The rebels had won. The Capital soldiers laid down their weapons after that second bomb went off and Snow was captured. She still wasn't sure where those bombs had come from. None of the non-District 13 people at the table were close enough to see the hovercraft, except for Gale Hawthorne. But, Hogarth barely knew him and most of Jessica's team said he couldn't be trusted. He said it was a Capital hovercraft. 

There were only a handful of people Hogarth felt that she could trust fully and they had either been excluded from this meeting or were in the hospital wing.

Hogarth abruptly stood and headed for the door. 

"Jeri?" Plutarch called from his seat beside Coin. 

"We are not finished, Miss Hogarth," Coin told her.

"Hmm," she said as she nodded slowly. "I'm not sure we should have started."

"Why is that?" Coin asked. 

Hogarth slowly walk back to the table but stood behind her chair. "This is not the right group of people to be making these decisions."

"Who would you suggest?" Coin asked accusatorially. 

Hogarth felt everyone staring at her. "Maybe more people who were actually here fighting instead of hiding underground on the other side of the nation."

Coin stood angrily. Hogarth shot her a pleased smirk. Plutarch placed a hand on Coin's arm. 

"You were 'hiding' too, Jeri," Plutarch pointed out. 

"I'm aware," she told him cuttingly. "So, I'm not discussing not this until the Mockingjay is here."

Hogarth heard the sound of a few chairs being pushed back from the table. 

"Or Jessica Jones," added Kitty, who was still technically the commander of Jessica's team. 

"Yeah, Commander Paylor too," one of the high ranking rebel officers said. 

Hogarth shrugged at Coin, who glared at her. She went for the door and about a third of the people followed her. 

Over in the makeshift hospital wing of the mansion, Johanna sat quietly beside Katniss' bed. It had been three days since the war ended. Katniss had been awake for one and she had yet to say anything. But that hadn't stopped Johanna from staying by her side. 

Peeta was the only other person to come by. Johanna actually felt relieved that he happened to be there every time Katniss' mom come to change her bandages. Johanna didn't know what she was supposed to say or do. Peeta didn't seem to either but at least Johanna wasn't alone in her silence. She couldn't comprehend how to console them in the wake of Prim's death. 

Down the hall, Jessica Jones knew she didn't need to say anything. Not yet. She was sitting on the side of Trish's bed, hugging her tightly as she cried into her shoulder. She was clinging to Jessica just as tightly. Wendy Ross-Hogarth, who seemed to be the most skilled rebel medical professional to have survived, had been keeping Trish in a medically induced coma as she tried to get the venom from the monster-mutts out of her system and figure out how to treat her once again smashed left leg. 

Medical supplies were starting to run low. Wendy left the decision to Jessica and she told her to wake Trish up so she could make the decision herself. They hadn't gotten that far. With Trish remembering Finnick's death and the amount of pain from her leg, it had been nothing but sobbing. 

Eventually, Wendy left them alone to check on the other patients. Trish was lying mostly quiet on the bed beside Jessica.

Trish still had tears in her eyes as she peered over at Jess. "I don't know what to do."

Jess lightly nodded. She turned toward her and supported herself on her arm as she peered down at Trish. "That's okay," she said as she placed her hand on her abdomen. Trish reached for her hand and held it in both of hers. "I'm for whatever you decide."

Trish nodded as she took a teary breath and looked away for a moment. "Do you mean that?" she asked meeting eyes with her again.

Jess peered down at her a bit confused. "Yeah. How could you think I wouldn't?"

Trish squeezed her hand a bit tighter. "They wanted to last time."

Jessica leaned a bit closer to her. "Why didn't you that time?"

Trish darkly scoffed through her tears. "My mother said I couldn't transition to an adult sex symbol, adult actress with only one leg."

Jess angrily exhaled. "That is fucked up. And not true."

Trish peered at her like she still wasn't certain. 

"Hey," Jessica said a she held Trish's hand tighter. "You're still you. Your mom never wanted you to be anything more than a sex symbol."

Trish peered away from her uncomfortably. 

Jess leaned down and kissed her on the corner of the mouth. Trish looked back.

"And you still could be, if you wanted to. But you're so much more than that now," Jessica told her seriously. 

Trish's lip quivered as she gazed loving up at Jess, who leaned down and kissed her softly. 

Trish nodded when Jess pulled away. "Ok, I'll have amputation surgery."

A few hours later, Jessica was sitting on some fancy chest in the hallway outside Trish's makeshift hospital room. Wendy, Katniss' mom and another rebel medic were handling Trish's surgery inside. Wendy had wanted to go to the nearest hospital but the rebel medic said it was impossible. Anything outside the president's compound and the rebel base that had been set up around it had been deemed unsafe until the official government took over. Jessica wasn't sure if that was anything more than Snow's execution.

"How's she doin'?" Luke asked as he appeared before Jessica. 

She looked up at him slowly. She shrugged. "She getting her leg amputated so ya know just great," Jessica quipped to try and mask her nerves. 

Luke looked taken aback and peered at the door shocked. He nervously turned to Jessica and didn't say anything. 

"Did you need something?" Jessica asked him.

He nodded. "Hogarth's called a meeting. But...I mean, you don't have to..."

Jessica jumped off then chest. "It's fine," she told him. "It's supposed to take a few more hours. And I'll take any fucking distraction."

Luke nodded as he led her to the room Hogarth had been using. 

For a split second, Johanna considered going straight back to Katniss' room after Hogarth's meeting. But she need a minute to clear her mind or a minute to herself. She wasn't even sure. 

Hogarth was worried about Coin, that after everything they had done and everything they had been through they were putting just another Snow into power. It had basically been a rebel meeting, just with a different target. 

Apparently shortly after Snow's execution, which was scheduled for the next day, Coin was going to make herself interim president, appoint a council and then have that council vote on the president. Hogarth was worried it was all going to be District 13 people. Multiple rebel leaders and all of Jessica's team thought the same. 

Johanna wasn't sure if she had that much fight left in her. So she didn't go back to Katniss' room. She wandered out onto the grounds. She saw someone sitting on the railing of the gazebo by the small pond. 

Johanna took a deep breath and walked toward her. She felt a bit selfish and like a shitty friend as she climbed over the railing and sat beside Annie. It was the first time she had seen her since the war ended. 

Johanna noticed she was just staring out into the water. She did the same. 

"I'm sorry, Annie," Johanna finally told her. The word felt heavy on her tongue but she knew they were not nearly enough to help. 

Annie shut her eyes and jerkily shook her head. She turned to Johanna like she was trying to say something but couldn't. She covered her face her with hand and then pushed her knuckle into her forehead. 

"Water's..." was all she had said when Johanna reached over and gently pulled Annie's hand away from her face. 

Annie jerked away from her. "The water is h-h-helping....calming."

Johanna weakly smiled and nodded as she let go of Annie's hand. 

"He-he would...he," Annie struggled to say as she grabbed Johanna's hand but kept her gaze out into the water. 

Johanna nodded. "Yeah, he would."


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hogarth and the other victors try to organize a plan to stop Coin, but Katniss makes her own decision.

Trish awoke slowly in her makeshift hospital bed. She had had a lot of surgeries over the years, so she was used to waking up afterward. She heard Wendy and Katniss’ mom say drugs were running low. She didn’t realize how low until she woke up much more lucid and in more pain than she usually did. But this was a much more intense surgery. 

Despite that she was able to smile. Jessica was sleeping in the chair beside the bed. She looked rather uncomfortable with a blanket pulled over herself. This was only the second time she had woken up to see Jessica. She tried to only focus on her relief of having her there and ignore the spike of pain from her mid-thigh and the strange feeling below it. She knew she couldn’t be feeling anything. Maybe she wasn’t as lucid as she thought. 

She gritted her teeth as another pain shot threw her leg. Jessica shook away and tossed her blanket aside as she hurried over and knelt beside her bed so they were at eye level. 

“Hey,” Jessica said softly as brushed Trish’s hair away from her face. Her hand lingered on the side of her face for a moment. 

Trish reached out for her hand. Jessica gently took hers and barely reacted as Trish squeezed it to distract her mind from the pain. 

"Where'd you go?" Trish asked to distract herself, noticing Jess had her jacket and shoes on. 

Jess peered down at the jacket and shook her head. "Hogarth called a meeting. Just to talk about plans moving forward," Jessica said. It wasn't really a lie, but she sure was downplaying it. She didn't want to get into it. 

Trish could tell and she lowly sighed. 

"Do you really think it's over?" Trish asked quietly. 

Jessica gave a small shrug. "After Snow's execution it should be. Hopefully."

Trish nodded and grunted in pain as she felt a few tears run on to her face. "I'm so tired, Jess. I'm tired of fighting and worrying all the time. And being away from you. Of all of it."

"I know," Jess replied softly as she leaned in and kissed her on the forehead before carefully climbing into the bed so Trish could lay her head against her chest. 

Trish tried to stop herself from crying as Jess put her arms around her. 

Johanna stopped abruptly as she was walking into the mansion with Annie. She peered ahead confused as she watched Katniss walking out of some glass greenhouse looking building. It took Annie a moment to realize Johanna had stopped. She walked back to her and saw what she was looking at.

"They're keeping someone in there," Annie told her. 

Johanna peered at her even more confused. 

"There are guards posted around the clock. Guns, lots of guns," Annie explained. 

Johanna looked back to Katniss, who had her head down and seemed to be lost in thought as she walked out of view toward the back entrance of the mansion. 

Johanna peered back at the greenhouse and exhaled loudly. "You think it could be Snow?"

Annie squeezed her eyes shut and muttered something to herself. Johanna shook her head annoyed at herself. 

"Come on," she said as she took Annie's hand and pulled her toward the mansion. "You need to rest."

A few hours later, Trish huffed loudly at Jessica who was rooting through the stack of clothes on the chair in Trish's hospital room. 

"I've rested enough, Jess," Trish told her for the third time. "Besides, didn't Coin call all the victors?"

Jessica groaned at her as she sorted the stack into a pile of her clothes and a pile of Trish's. 

"I'm technically more of a victor than you are anyway," Trish told her with a smile. 

Jessica threw a tank top and sweater at her, which she caught inches from her face. She lowered them and smirked at Jess, who shook her head. 

She grabbed a pair of Trish's pants and huffed as she sat beside her on the bed. "Well I'm glad you’re feeling better but I still don't know how I feel about this meeting."

Trish raised her eyebrows at her in question as she pulled the sweater over her head.

Jess sighed. "I didn't tell you earlier but in that earlier meeting, Hogarth was all worried that Coin is turning into another Snow."

Trish shrugged as she started to pull her pants on. "I'm not surprised."

Jessica nodded as she handed Trish her right shoe.

"What is her plan?" Trish asked as she put it on. "Hogarth's, I mean."

Jessica shrugged. "See who she appoints to the council and fight against it if it's all District 13 people?" she answered uncertainly as she pushed the wheelchair Wendy had gotten from somewhere beside the bed. 

Trish lifted herself into it with minimal help from Jessica and they started toward Coin's meeting room. "That would be our only solution. We can't have District 13 running everything."

"I thought you were down fighting?" Jessica asked.

"Not if we are about to put another dictator into power," Trish shot back. 

Johanna peered across the giant circular table at Katniss. She was already there when Johanna arrived with Annie. She figured she had come with Peeta, who was sitting next her. Beetee was sitting beside him with Hogarth and Wendy.

Trish and Jessica were the last to arrive. Johanna knew she stared for too long but she hadn't expected Trish to be there, given how injured Jessica said she was. 

The only person Johanna didn't really know was crazy chick with the shark teeth from 2. She was sitting between two empty chairs. 

"I am sorry to have had to call you all here, since I know many of you are still recovering," Coin began. "But there is an important decision that needs to be made and I believe the decision should be left to the 10 of you."

"Why us?" Peeta questioned. 

Coin gave him a stern smile. 

"Don't sugar coat it, Madame President," Hogarth seethed at her. "We know who we are and what we represent so just get on with it."

Coin sighed annoyed. "We would like to issue a punishment for the fallen leaders. Something that will have a lasting effect and be more of a reminder than an execution."

Jessica felt her chest tighten and her stomach drop as she realized what Coin was suggesting. Jess felt Hogarth peering at her from across the table. She met eyes with her. Hogarth barely raised an eyebrow at her. Jess nodded. 

"You cannot be serious?" Wendy questioned. 

Johanna scoffed and shook her head. "Why not? Those assholes have fucked over all of us, most of us twice."

"It would not be annual games," Coin told them. "One last game as a form a payback for everything the Capital has done to us."

"'Us?'" Trish questioned. "Your district was never a part of the games. You wouldn't be suggesting this if it was."

Coin simply nodded at her. "So is that a no vote, Miss Walker?"

"Of course," she replied. 

"Enobaria?" Coin questioned. 

"There are 10 of us," she replied. "What if we end in a tie?"

Hogarth peered anxiously at Coin. Jessica got an idea and quickly blurted it out. 

"The Mockingjay's vote should count at two," Jessica stated. 

Katniss peered up from the table and over at Jessica, unclearly. Johanna frantically looked from Jessica to Katniss. Jess gave Katniss a small nod of encouragement. 

"Very well then," Coin replied. 

"I vote yes," Enobaria answered. 

"So do I," Johanna called. 

Annie peered at her with a look of betrayal. "No, I vote no. And so would have Finnick."

"I agree," Peeta chimed in. "No."

"No," Beetee added.

"Miss Hogarth?" Coin answered. 

"Yes," she stated simply. 

"Jesus, Jeri," Wendy said quietly as she shook her head. "No," she said to Coin.

"Commander Jones?" Coin asked.

Jessica grabbed Trish's hand under the table and held it firm. "Yes," she replied. She felt Trish's hand flinch but she glanced at her for only a moment. 

Coin nodded in her direction. "That would make the Mockingjay our deciding vote. Miss Everdeen?"

Katniss slowly peered up from the table, which she had been staring at for most of their discussion. "Yes for Prim."

"Excellent," Coin stated with a pleased smile. "We will make the announcement after the execution tomorrow."

Everyone uncomfortably filed out of the room. Jess was a little surprised to see Hogarth and Wendy walk away together. Once Jessica and Trish reached the hallway, they saw Annie shoving Johanna into the wall with tears in her eyes. 

"Will you let me explain?" Johanna pleaded.

Annie turned and starting running down the hallway. 

"Annie? Shit! Annie!" Johanna called after her. Johanna peered back to Katniss, who was awkwardly standing beside Jessica and Trish. "I...I'm sorry...I have to..." Johanna gave up trying to explain herself to Katniss and went chasing after Annie. 

Katniss peered after her for a moment before walking away silently. 

"Wow, that went well," Jessica said sarcastically. 

Trish peered up at her. "Please tell me that was all part of some plan."

Jessica nodded. "I don't know if it is Hogarth's or Katniss' but one of them is planning something."

Jessica wasn't certain whose it was until she was standing for among the other victors during the execution the next day. Hogarth was seated on the stage behind Coin looking anxious, while Katniss had confidently marched up and drew her bow, pointing the arrow at Snow, who was tied to the post in front of her. 

Katniss' decision was made so swiftly it took a moment for everyone to comprehend what happened. 

"Oh shit," Johanna exclaimed as the arrow pierced Coin's chest and she collapsed on the stage. 

Snow started cackling on his post. Jessica nervously peered over at Trish, she jumped and almost lost her balance on her crutches as everyone around them started to yell and charge at Katniss. 

"I need to..." Jessica slowly realized.

"Go," Trish told her, managing to smile reassuringly through her fear. "I'll be fine."

Jessica nodded, turned and sprinted for Katniss. 

"Jessica!" She heard someone yell behind her. She peered over her shoulder just long enough to see Kitty jumping out of the stands and running toward her. 

Jessica reached Katniss and knocked what she was pretty sure was a suicide pill out of her hand. "No way, dumbass," she told her. 

"Katniss!" they both heard Johanna yell, as she was being mostly blocked from view by Trish and held back by Peeta. 

"Now," Kitty told Jessica as she reached them and grabbed Jessica's wrist.

Jessica jumped and guide-fell the three of them onto the nearest rooftop. She and Kitty sprinted forward, nearly dragging Katniss between them. 

"Where are we going?" Kitty asked as she ran them through a rooftop patio and Jessica jumped them onto the next roof.

Jessica panicked for a moment. She hadn't thought that far ahead. She got an idea and darkly laughed to herself. 

"I know a place."


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica and Kitty get Katniss to safety after Coin's death.

"What the fuck was that?" Jessica demanded of Katniss as she pushed her down onto the white couch in the living room. 

Katniss shuttered as she peered up at Jessica nervously and tearfully. Despite her Mockingjay uniform and dramatic hair and makeup, she looked like nothing more than the scared kid everyone so often forgot she was. 

"Was that your plan?" Jessica asked less forcefully.

Katniss nodded but didn't look up at Jessica. "Those hovercrafts, the ones that did the bombings, the ones that killed Prim..." she trailed off as she struggled to stop herself from crying. "They weren't from the Capital, they were from 13. Snow didn't send them Coin did."

"Why would she do that?" Kitty questioned as she stood firmly in front of Katniss. Jessica had started to pace through the living room. 

"She was just trying to end everything," Katniss informed them. "She didn't care who died as long as she came out on top."

Jessica had to shake her head at how darkly smart it was. "Nobody supports kids of their own getting killed," she said feeling overwhelmed as she sat on the other end of the L-shaped couch. "That is what the revolution has always been about."

Kitty huffed as she sat down near Jessica in the darkened apartment. "You could have at least shared your plan, so we could have gotten you to safety earlier."

Katniss nodded slightly. "I didn't really have a plan until I had an arrow at Snow."

They were all silent for a moment. 

"But you still got me to safety," Katniss told them. "Thank you."

She peered around the apartment for a moment and then looked at the two older girls confused. "Why do I feel like I've been here before?" 

Jessica huffed as she stood and slowly moved toward the hallway. "The after party for Together We Fight."

"This is Trish Walker's apartment?" Katniss asked.

Jessica nodded, but realized they probably couldn't see her. "Yeah, it is." 

Jessica stopped for a moment and peered into the spotless kitchen, thinking back to when she first saw Trish in the apartment, hunched over a script. There were no power or lights in the apartment or the surrounding blocks of the slightly damaged part of the Capital. Jessica passed the control panel in the hallway. It didn't have power, just as she had expected. She opened the door to the nearby linen closet and pulled out enough blankets and pillows for two.

She tossed half at Katniss and half at Kitty when she rejoined them in the living room. 

"Get some sleep," she instructed them. "We'll try to contact the others in the morning." 

She ignored them as she walked through to the bedroom. She slid open the door, stepped inside and closed the door behind herself. She stayed with her back against the doors as she peered into the room. 

She took a few slow breathes and slid down until she was seated on the floor. She couldn't get herself to move, couldn't get herself to move about the room alone. 

It was dark, but it was just as clear and familiar as it was the last time she saw it. Or at least thought she had. It was a hallucination or maybe it was a dream or maybe she had died for a moment and it was what her afterlife looked like. She didn't know. 

It was during the earlier hours of the demonic Patsy Walker marathon. She had blacked out from the pain and saw the room perfectly. Trish had just been sitting on the bed, reading lines from a script to herself. 

Jessica had to darkly scoff to herself. Her fantasy's when she was capture were always so tragically simple. Especially after everything they had done in that bedroom. She had never expected to see it again. 

She had told Trish before their first mission that she wasn't dying if there was a chance of them getting back there. She said it as a joke. She really hadn't expected them both to survive. 

Jessica stood and peered at the bed, remembering the time nearly two years ago when Trish showed her the footage of a girl she vaguely knew from school volunteering for her sister. Trish had that stupidly brave look and said they should protect her. 

Guess we succeeded, Jessica thought to herself with a smirk. 

She slid open the doors in walked back into the living room. Katniss and Kitty had spread out their linens and removed their armor and jackets but didn't look ready for bed. Jessica peered out onto the balcony and realized it was much earlier than she thought it had been. 

"You guys want drinks?" Jessica asked as she walked to the kitchen. 

Kitty shook her head at Katniss' questioning expression. "You actually have something?"

Katniss weakly smiled. "Patsy always has too fancy booze."

Jessica pointed at her and nodded. "That is true," she said as knelt before a cabinet, opened it and reached into the back. "But most of this shit is mine, so it's not fancy."

Jessica started pulling out bottles and setting them on the floor. "All right, we got two bottles of whiskey, scotch, rum, gin, vodka and four bottles of fancy ass red wine, which is Trish's."

Kitty managed to laugh. "I'll take the rum."

"Wine, I guess," Katniss said. 

Jessica laughed as she handed the wine to Katniss and sat across from her with the whiskey. "Johanna mentioned you being a lightweight."

Katniss huffed at her. "When was that?"

Jessica shrugged as she took a swig of her whiskey. "I think it was in our cells in the Tribute Center."

Katniss took an uncomfortable drink of her wine. 

"She talked about you a lot when we were in there," Jessica told her staring down the neck of her whiskey bottle.

"I think I pissed off Trish when the Capital had you guys," Katniss admitted. 

Kitty scoffed as she lowered her rum bottle. "Trish was already pissed, always pissed."

Jessica sighed as she took a swig. 

Katniss shook her head as she took a small sip of her wine. "She had much more of a right to be. Jo-Johanna and I were barely together. And in comparison it hadn't been that long that she had been gone."

Jessica peered up at Katniss across the living room and shook her head. "She wasn't as mad as you thought. She doesn't get that mad, about anything."

Kitty laughed. Jessica raised an eyebrow at her. "There was one time she did, if Pete's face could have a say."

"What?" Jessica questioned with an amused look.

"She beat Pete senseless one day."

"He has metal skin," Jessica pointed out. 

Kitty smiled over the lip of her rum bottle. "Yeah that didn't stop her."

Jessica laughed and shook her head. 

The three of them traded stories and finished about half of their bottles until they fell asleep on different parts of the couch and floor.

Jessica was seated on the floor with her back against the couch. She was the first to wake at the sound of something outside the balcony door. She quickly jumped to her feet and tensed as she peered at the glass door. 

"Kitty," she called over her shoulder. "Kitty, wake up."

She instantly did and stood in front of the couch. "What is it?"

"No idea. I heard something outside," Jessica replied.

Katniss jolted awake and saw them standing. She scrambled to her feet, loaded her bow and pointed it at the balcony door. 

Kitty started to laugh. "Everyone relax. That's Kurt."

"What?" Katniss asked, sleepily and confused. 

"Just listen," Kitty added. 

Jessica smirked and relaxed as she heard the familiar whooshing. Suddenly Johanna appeared in the living room by the balcony door and then Kurt appeared stumbling forward with Trish. Jessica bolted forward and steadied her. 

"Oh, hey," Jessica told her. 

"Aw, Jess. Thank god," Trish replied. She could tell by the sound of her voice she was trying to offer her comfort while needing so much more herself. Trish hugged Jess with her left arm, letting her crutch hang awkwardly off her forearm. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," Jessica said into her shoulder. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Trish pulled away slightly and kissed her on the cheek before turning her head and kissing her softly on the lips. She was lying, it was always sad how easily Trish could tell. Trish nudged her with her shoulder.

"Into the bedroom," she told her quietly. Trish struggled to close the door in the even darker room. She finally got the door closed and staggered to the bed. She tossed her crutches aside and reached Jessica, who was sitting tensely in the middle of the bed. "What's wrong?" Trish asked as she ran her down Jessica's arm.

Jessica shrugged uncomfortably. 

 

Trish huffed at her. “Will you just tell me?” 

“Being back here…it’s…” 

“Overwhelming?” Trish added. 

Jessica nodded. “I never thought I’d see it again. I never thought I’d make it out of the Capital. And now it’s all just…” 

Trish smiled down at the bed. “Death wish.” 

Jess glared at her. “It isn’t a death wish,” she offered in her defense. 

Trish looked up at her and raised her eyebrows. “Oh, now you agree with me?”

Jessica huffed as she looked at her guiltily. 

Trish leaned in and quickly kissed her before pulling away to explain herself. “I accepted that I might die during our first games, but you were going to survive. I accepted it for the second too, but Katniss was going to survive. I actually never considered I would die during your rescue mission, but this one I had fully accepted we might all die.” 

“But, we didn’t,” Jessica stated. 

Trish shook her head. “No. And as gratefully that I was to be wrong every time, it was always too hard to believe. And winning the games or seeing you on a rooftop or just waking up beside you here was too much to wrap my head around.” 

Jessica laughed as she laid and Trish did laid beside her. 

“I tried to walk in here earlier and I barely made it past the door.” 

Trish pushed herself closer to Jess and laid her head on her shoulder. “I’m not surprised. I was never able to set foot in our house in 12.” 

Jess smirked down at her. “I’m not even sad it burned to the ground.” 

Trish bit her bottom lip but smiled. “Me either.”


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone slowly adjusts to the aftermath of the war actually ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the massive delay. I hadn't thought about this story for a while but then I saw what the creator said about Jessica and Trish in season two and threw myself right back into this.

"That was incredibly stupid, you know that?" Johanna grumbled as she sat down. 

Katniss barely looked away from the damaged city skyline in front of her. Johanna fidgeted against the fancy wicker bench on Trish Walker's balcony. She then huffed, sounding a bit defeated and offered her liquor bottle to Katniss. She held her wine bottle off the classy stone floor and set it back down.

"Fine," Johanna replied. "You fucking knew that. I'm sorry."

"Jessica and Kitty already gave me this lecture," she finally answered. "I would have told you, if I knew I was going to do it."

"It might have been the smartest thing you've ever done," the older girl told her. 

"Now I'm running for my life again."

Johanna grumbled as she took a swig of her vodka. "That might be over."

Katniss shrugged weakly. 

"Stop it, Girl on Fire. I think you really did it this time. You actually ended it."

"I didn't save Prim," she said in a strange monotone that caught Johanna off guard.

"No, you failed at that," Johanna shot back. "But no other Prim's or Rue's or any other fucking kids are going to be dying and that is on you."

Katniss peered over at her slowly. She barely seemed to register that Johanna was looking at her. She only kept her eyes on her lips, leaned in, kissed her and slowly pulled away. Only then did she look up and met her eyes. "What am I supposed to do now?"

Johanna sighed. She has been struggling with the question all day. "I don't know."

The next morning Trish jolted awake in her bed. She panted for a moment as she peered around uncertain of where she was. With the light barely shining through her window and Jess tangled in the sheets beside her it took her a moment to remember when it was. If a pain didn't shoot up her leg and she found nothing beneath her hands when she reached for it, she could have just believed it was two years ago and nothing since Jess returned had happened. 

But that wasn't the case. So she reached onto the floor for her crutches and went out into her living room. Kitty was asleep on one couch and Kurt was on the other. She peered out onto the balcony and saw Katniss and Johanna sleeping together under a single sheet on one of the spare mattresses. 

She went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and paused for a moment. She wasn't sure if the water was running or not. The sink spurted out brown water for a moment and than slowly changed to clear. She sighed relieved and sat down. Just as Jessica was stumbling out of the bedroom, the tablet on the counter buzzed. Trish seized it and opened the secured call.

"Hogarth," she breathed at the mentor."

"I assume you found them," she replied. 

Trish nodded as Jessica walked over and stood behind her.

"Good. You can come back," Hogarth told them.

"Back to what?" Jessica answered.

Hogarth huffed at her. "How I given you a reason not to trust me?"

Trish weakly smiled over her shoulder at Jessica, who was scoffing in annoyance. "It isn't just us here."

Hogarth nodded, seeming to understand. "Paylor's been made President, on an interim basis until an election can be held."

"And the rest of the government?" Jessica asked.

"A ruling council, appointed for now but they will be elected in sections as well," Hogarth told them. "You were given a position," she said heavily to Jess.

"Me?" Jessica replied. "Whose fucking idea was that?" 

"What position?" Trish asked.

"It was a group decision. And Gifted Residents Liaison."

"Oh," Trish replied, turning toward Jessica encouragingly. 

Jessica tightly crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the counter behind Trish. "I don't know."

"You would be the most qualified," Trish added.

"The position would be up for election in 18 months," Hogarth told her. 

"Was Katniss given a position?" Trish questioned.

Hogarth shook her head. "Not officially but she will have voting power if she wants it, which is one of the reasons why I need all of you back at the mansion."

Jessica nodded and stepped forward. "We'll round everyone up and be there soon."

After a short meeting, Jessica decided to keep her appointed position on the council. Katniss opted to go home. 

That created a whole other tense set of questions and choices for the remaining District 12 residents. A hovercraft was going and everyone just had to decide if they would board. Hogarth was made the District 12 Ambassador to the council and decided to stay. Katniss' mom took a position on the medical staff and stayed. Peeta didn't want Katniss to go alone so he choice to return. Luke went too, hoping to re-open his bar. Gale took a military position in District 2. Trish and Jessica had never intended to return and didn't. 

The day before the craft was leaving they found Johanna sitting in the hallway outside the room Katniss has been using, looking as if she was trying to force herself to go inside. Trish stopped in front of her, reached into her pocket and held out a key to her. 

"Here," she said simply.

Johanna took it and stared at it for a moment. "What is this?"

"The key. To my house in 12," Trish explained. "I want you to have it."

Johanna huffed. "You're just giving me a house, Patsy?"

Jessica sighed. "Someone might as well use it."

Johanna peered at it uncertainly. "I was going to have Annie live with me. She...doesn't want to go back to 4."

Trish smiled at her weak excuse. "You knew Victor Village houses have seven bedroom."

"And the offer goes for both of you," Jessica added. 

Johanna looked up at them and nodded. "Thanks."

When the hovercraft departed for District 12, Johanna and Annie were also on board.

At first, Katniss didn't like being back in District 12. Everything felt too quiet. The house she felt like she had barely lived in had been set up for three. Now it only had one. The street had four houses left standing after the bombings and only three were being lived it. Katniss started taking to leaving her windows and front door open at all times. 

She started going hunting to give herself something to do. At first the rest of the district looked deserted but eventually people started to move back. Luke Cage come back too and opened his bar again that seemed to add a little life to what was left of the city. 

After her first good day of hunting, Katniss was sitting in her front doorway watching what was once Trish Walker's house. She wasn't really sure why she hadn't spent any time over there or why Johanna hadn't come over. Katniss was blaming them getting settled but really she had no idea why she and Johanna were being so weird about the whole situation. 

Maybe it all seemed too easy now. She was there, right there across the street. There was nothing to do, no obligations and nothingness stopping them. So Katniss huffed to herself, stood and walked across the street. She knocked on their door and waited for Johanna to answer.

"Hey," she told her.

"Hi," Johanna said over the music that was blaring through the house behind her.

"Come to my house for dinner tonight," Katniss told her.

Annie wandered through the foyer carrying an overflowing box and humming to herself. Johanna closed her eyes and huffed.

"Both of us?" Johanna asked.

Katniss nodded. "I'll invite Peeta too," she said as she started to walk away.

"Hey, Girl on Fire," Johanna called.

Katniss stopped in the middle of the street and turned back to her.

"Then tomorrow night, go to that bar with me," she told her more than asked her.

Katniss smiled and walked back to her house. It slowly became part of the routine. On Tuesdays they all had dinner. On Wednesdays, Johanna and Katniss went out for drinks.


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica and Trish return to District 12 for a movie premiere and have a normal evening with everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting.

**Four Months Later**

Jessica peered around the slit in the curtain and watched Trish stand beside the bright white couch. Jess couldn’t even register the cheers and howlers from the crowd of people she knew were gathered but she couldn’t see. The moment all felt too strange, too strange because it was so oddly familiar. But, unlike the other times Trish hadn’t walked out alone. It was as if she didn’t need to anymore to show her power and strength. She had enough of that on her own now, enough to walk out beside Cressida and with her dress cut so her new blue and white prosthetic leg showed through. 

“Commander?” someone called to Jessica. 

She jumped slightly and the sounds and feeling of the talk show set all hit her at once. She turned to the PA, with large headphones around his neck and a clipboard in his arm. 

“Don’t call me that,” she told him quietly. 

“Sorry…,” he replied.

“Jessica is fine.” 

He nodded. “Jessica, right. I fought in the one of the rebel…it doesn’t matter. If you wanna go to the back, you can see the broadcast version.” 

“Thanks,” she told him as she walked away from the main stage and toward the control panel at the back of the studio. 

“About damn time,” Johanna joked to Peeta as he walked into Katniss’ house only a few minutes after she did. She was unloading bottles of liquor out of bags onto the counter. 

He shook his head as he started unpacking his bag of food into the fridge and pre-heating oven. “Sorry, the grocery store isn’t as close as the liquor store.” 

“Lack of lability to make liquor or wine on our own,” Annie stated as she wandered into the kitchen from the living room.  
Johanna scoffed. “Well yeah dude, but we aren’t making any of that food on our own.” 

Katniss laughed as she walked up to Johanna and kissed her before taking a wine bottle of her bag and opening in. She seriously nodded at Peeta. “Thankfully he is here or we would all be back to starving.” 

Annie held her glass out to Katniss, who started to refill it. “Knew kept around for some reason.” 

Johanna scoffed as she shrugged. “That’s the only one.” 

Peeta groaned as he pulled a bottle of beer out of the fridge. “Why do I tolerate you guys?” 

Katniss shrugged as she threw her arm around Johanna’s waist. “We are the only people you know?” 

He shook his head. “How’s this new talk show host?” 

Annie ran her finger around the rim of her wine glass and smiled down at it before looking up at him and nodding. “Less awkward than most.” 

Katniss nodded in agreement. “Trish is doing most of the talking so it has been all right so far. They haven’t gotten to the memorial…uh, the thing they are doing to honor…” Katniss trailed off awkwardly. 

Annie ran her finger around the rim again. “Pre-made segment. Less awkward, more caring voices.” 

Johanna tensed and awkwardly nodded. “Well, let’s go see it then.” 

The four of them walked into Katniss’ living room with their drinks. Johanna sat on the end of the couch and put her arm around Katniss, who sat beside her. Annie and Peeta joined them to watch the radio celebrity from District 5, who had been given a national talk show. He was hosting the Together We Die pre-premiere show with Trish and Cressida. The official premiere of the movie was going to be the following afternoon in District 12. Everyone was already there. The theater Trish got her start in had been transformed to host the talk show. 

Katniss, Johanna, Annie and Peeta had been invited to the live show but opted to watch it at home instead. Johanna had been a bit concerned since it was going to include a tribute to Finnick, who was still included in the movie though his end had to be changed since he only had filmed about two-thirds of it. 

“You know, I really thought they’d be showing this live,” Luke told Jessica as he handed her a drink from behind the bar. 

Trish shrugged beside Jessica as Cressida held out her glass from Trish’s other side. She shook her head as Luke took it and refilled it. He set it beside her as she pointed at the television mounted behind the bar. 

“This new host guy,” she started to explain, “was too nervous to do this live. I tried to tell him we weren’t going to fuck anything up.” 

Trish laughed. “It is isn’t like Capital Pictures is still around to gut him if he made a mistake.” 

“Shh,” Jessica called as she realized the Finnick memorial segment was starting. 

Cressida cocked an eyebrow at her. “Haven’t you seen this before?” 

Jessica nodded. “Yeah, but nobody else has.” 

Trish rubbed her hand against Jessica’s back and then leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. The memorial was simple. It was simple footage of Finnick, with just music over it. The footage was mostly from his movies and television appearances. There was a long section of footage of him dancing with Annie from their wedding but most of it was just fun and silly. It seemed appropriate. 

Johanna took a deep breath on Katniss’ couch. The Girl on Fire peered over at her with a raised eyebrow. She gave her a weak smile, a quick kiss and a nod. It was a good memorial. Annie closed her eyes from her seat between Katniss and Peeta and didn’t say a word, but Johanna smiled. She could tell she liked it. 

“So it looks like my advice worked out rather well for you. Maybe I should request a thank you,” Trish told Johanna as she stepped beside her near the bar at the outdoor venue where the premiere was being held.

Johanna laughed for a moment about Trish Walker in a stunning dress standing beside her, holding a drink and smugly smiling at her as they both looked ahead at Katniss. She was causally talking with Jessica, Luke and most of their team from the war.

“What are you doing back here anyway?” Trish asked her. 

Johanna shrugged. “Annie’s in the restroom. I was just waiting for her. How did you even get away for a moment? Aren’t you the main event or whatever?” 

Trish chuckled into her champagne flute. She instantly stopped when she noticed Jessica, Cressida, Katniss and a few others were walking at them. “Oh what have we here?” 

Cressida huffed into her drink. “I started getting pelted with questions about the untiled Patsy Walker project and thought I would just direct everyone to the source.” 

“Rumor has it you have a chick love interest in it,” Daisy questioned. 

Trish smirked and blushed. “Now how did you hear that?” 

Marie shrugged. “Rumor has been around for a while now.” 

“So is it true?” Pete asked excitedly. 

Kitty huffed beside him. 

“Don’t be a pervert, dude,” Luke shot at him as Jessica vigorously nodded from his side.

Pete scoffed at him. “I’m not. That would make it a romance movie, right? Can’t I like romance movies?” 

Trish shrugged. “Action-romance,” she corrected quietly. 

Jessica shook her head at the few gasps from the crowd. 

“Action romance?” Simmons questions from Daisy’s side. 

Johanna and Katniss shared a look and started to laugh. “You should have just had Jessica play herself then,” Johanna shot out as Katniss went red, trying to hold in a laugh beside her. 

“The love interest isn’t me,” Jessica grumbled. 

“And she is a terrible actress,” Trish added. 

“Hey!” Jessica shot at her. 

“What? You wouldn’t even audition,” Trish replied. 

“Well, the love interest isn’t me,” Jessica repeated. 

Johanna smiled as Katniss hide her face in her shoulder to stop herself from laughing. “Sure,” she said with a faux serious nod. 

There was an announcement that the movie was about to begin and everyone made their way to their seats in front of the giant outdoor projection screen. 

“Hey, you gonna be good?” Johanna asked Annie as she leaned over to her. 

Annie nodded. “He’ll live on in film for others, but I don’t need it anymore.” 

Johanna smiled at her and then sat up in her seat and turned to Katniss on her other side. The Girl on Fire quickly leaned in and kissed her passionately. 

“What was that for?” Johanna questioned her as she pulled away. 

Katniss shrugged. “I don’t know. I love you and I just felt like it.” 

“Oh,” Johanna smirked. “Well, I like it. And I love you too.” 

As soon as the audience went silent and the image of Trish’s character slowly pulling herself out of battlefield wreckage broke onto the screen, Jessica leaned over to Trish. “You know you look hot as hell in these movies,” she told her. 

Trish raised her eyebrows at her. “Oh just in these movies?” she questioned with a smirk. 

Jessica returned it. “You’re all right the rest of the time, too.” 

Trish shook her head at her as she leaned in and kissed her lightly. “You too, Jess.”


End file.
